Six Female Firsts: The Houses of Parliament

Women in New Zealand were the first to be given the right to vote in a national election back in 1893. The struggle for female emancipation was a long and bitter one in Britain.

1. In the 1820's Elizabeth Fry, a tireless campaigner for the improvement of prisoners' welfare, became the first women to address a House of Commons Committee and persuaded the Government to include many of her recommendations in the Gaol Act of 1823. This provided for the payment of warders and stipulated that females should supervise female inmates.

2. On December 1, 1919 the American heiress Lady Astor became the first female MP to take her seat at the Houses of Parliament, having stood in for her husband as the Tory candidate for the safe seat of Plymouth Sutton. Many feminists felt dismayed that a woman with no record of championing female causes should be Britain's first female MP.

3. In 1958 Barbara Wootton of Abinger became the first female Life Peer in the House of Lords when she was made a Baroness under the Life Peerages Act of that year.

4. In 1982 the Conservative peer Baroness Young became the first female leader of the House of Lords. Janet Young was the only female appointed to the Cabinet while Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister. In her later career, Baroness Young was best known for her opposition to Gay Rights. She died in 2002.

5. In 1979 Margaret Thatcher became the first female Prime Minister in British history. The dominant figure of the Conservative Government, Thatcher succeeded in winning three consecutive General Elections. Divisions within her party caused by disagreement over Europe and controversial domestic policies, such as the introduction of the poll tax, led her to stand down from her role as Prime Minister in 1990.

6. In 1992 Betty Boothroyd was elected as the First Female Speaker in the House of Commons. Boothroyd who won cross party support for her measured and down-to-earth approach. She dispensed with the tradition of wearing a wig and rather than shout "Order, Order" as her predecessors had done, Boothroyd would simply say "Right, time's up". Boothroyd stepped down from her role as Speaker and resigned her parliamentary seat in 2000. She was made a Life Peer in the following year.

Both the House of Commons and the House of Lords are dominated by men. The most photographed and recognisable part of the Parliament is St Stephen's Tower, commonly known as Big Ben (even though that is just the bell in the clock tower).

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