Programme

2022 marks a series of historic anniversaries for women in British politics. It is forty years since the election of Harriet Harman, the Mother of the House; thirty-five years since the election of the first Black woman MP, Diane Abbott; thirty years since the first woman, Betty Boothroyd, was elected to Speaker of the House; and twenty-five years since the election of more than a hundred women MPs for the Labour Party.

This list of milestones might seem to suggest that women made steady, if slow, progress into British political life in the post-war period. The reality, however, was rather different. 

This conference will provide an important opportunity to showcase emerging work on women and politics in the second half of the twentieth century in Britain, bringing historians together with political scientists and sociologists to generate new conversations, relationships, and understandings of what politics meant to and for women in the second half of the twentieth century.  

Confirmed academic speakers include:

• Laura Beers (Professor of History at American University, Washington DC)
• Clarisse Berthèzene (Professor of Modern British History at the University of Paris)
• Sarah Childs (Professor of Politics and Gender at Royal Holloway University of London)
• Jullie Gottlieb (Professor of Modern British History at the University of Sheffield)
• Farah Hussain (Research Fellow at the Mile End Institute, QMUL)
• Khursheed Wadia (Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of Warwick)

Sessions with external speakers include:

• 'The Future of Women in British Politics' with Rachel Blake (Tower Hamlets Councillor), Zainab Asanramu (Elect Her), Rabina Khan (Liberal Democrats), Jemima Olchawski (Fawcett Society), Natasha Osei (50:50 Parliament) and Elena Scherbatykh (Women's Equality Party)
• 'Reflections on Parliamentary Careers' with Baroness Browning, Dame Margaret Hodge MP, Baroness Morris of Yardley and Baroness Primarolo.
• 'Margaret Thatcher: What Can We Learn?': Emily Stacey in conversation with Caroline Slocock
• 'A Woman's Place is in the House ... of Commons': Lyndsey Jenkins in conversation with Frances Scott and Lesley Abdela

All of the Keynote Lectures and the main sessions with external speakers will be recorded and available on the Mile End Institute's YouTube channel after the conference has finished.  

To find out more about what we'll be covering, please consult our Final Breaking the Glass Chamber Programme [PDF 194KB] and the Final Abstract Booklet [PDF 369KB]