One of the myths the Conservative History Journal and this blog are anxious to dispel is the one about women’s advance in politics and society being only because of activity on the left of the political spectrum.
The autumn issue of the Journal will be centred on the subject of women in conservative politics. In the meantime, today is a good day to recall the first woman MP, Nancy Astor, who died on May 2, 1946.
An American, Nancy Langhorne was born in Virginia but moved to England after an unsuccessful first marriage in 1904, marrying Waldorf Astor soon afterwards.
Nancy was for several years, the perfect political wife, if possibly a little more interested in her husband’s and his party’s doings than many. But in 1919 Waldorf Astor became a Viscount on his father’s death and Nancy decided to fight his seat, defeating Isaac Foot, the first of many political “Feet”, father of Michael, John, Hugh and Dingle and grandfather of Paul. (There might be some political “Feet” I have left out.)
Nancy Astor was a strong supporter of the Temperance Movement (a result of that unfortunate first marriage) and her maiden speech was on that subject. Her first private member’s bill raised the age for the purchase of alcoholic drinks to eighteen.
There were other causes: equality in the civil service, suffrage for women at 21 (to make it equal with men) and nursery schools. All in all, she is somebody most women can be grateful to. Furthermore, she was seriously unpopular with Harold Nicolson, who made some very disparaging remarks about her in his diary.
Links
Powered by Blogger.
Followers
Labels
- 1922 Committee (1)
- abolition of slave trade (1)
- Abraham Lincoln (2)
- academics (2)
- Adam Smith (2)
- advertising (1)
- Agatha Christie (4)
- American history (33)
- ancient history (4)
- Anglo-Boer Wars (1)
- Anglo-Dutch wars (1)
- Anglo-French Entente (1)
- Anglo-Russian Convention (2)
- Anglosphere (19)
- anniversaries (175)
- Anthony Price (1)
- archaelogy (8)
- architecture (8)
- archives (3)
- Argentina (1)
- Ariadne Tyrkova-Williams (1)
- art (14)
- Arthur Ransome (1)
- arts funding (1)
- Attlee (2)
- Australia (1)
- Ayn Rand (1)
- Baroness Park of Monmouth (1)
- battles (11)
- BBC (5)
- Beatrice Hastings (1)
- Bible (3)
- Bill of Rights (1)
- biography (21)
- birthdays (11)
- blogs (10)
- book reviews (8)
- books (78)
- bred and circuses (1)
- British Empire (7)
- British history (1)
- British Library (9)
- British Museum (4)
- buildings (1)
- businesses (1)
- calendars (1)
- Canada (2)
- Canning (1)
- Castlereagh (2)
- cats (1)
- censorship (1)
- Charles Dickens (3)
- Charles I (1)
- Chesterton (1)
- CHG meetings (9)
- children's books (2)
- China (2)
- Chips Channon (4)
- Christianity (1)
- Christmas (1)
- cities (1)
- City of London (2)
- Civil War (6)
- coalitions (2)
- coffee (1)
- coffee-houses (1)
- Commonwealth (1)
- Communism (15)
- compensations (1)
- Conan Doyle (5)
- conservatism (24)
- Conservative Government (1)
- Conservative historians (4)
- Conservative History Group (10)
- Conservative History Journal (23)
- Conservative Party (25)
- Conservative Party Archives (1)
- Conservative politicians (22)
- Conservative suffragists (5)
- constitution (1)
- cookery (5)
- counterfactualism (1)
- country sports (1)
- cultural propaganda (1)
- culture wars (1)
- Curzon (3)
- Daniel Defoe (2)
- Denmark (1)
- detective fiction (31)
- detectives (19)
- diaries (7)
- dictionaries (1)
- diplomacy (2)
- Disraeli (12)
- documents (1)
- Dorothy L. Sayers (5)
- Dorothy Sayers (5)
- Dostoyevsky (1)
- Duke of Edinburgh (1)
- Duke of Wellington (14)
- East Germany (1)
- Eastern Question (1)
- economic history (1)
- Economist (2)
- economists (2)
- Edmund Burke (7)
- education (3)
- Edward Heath (2)
- elections (5)
- Eliza Acton (1)
- engineering (3)
- English history (56)
- English literature (34)
- enlightenment (3)
- enterprise (1)
- Eric Ambler (1)
- espionage (2)
- European history (4)
- Evelyn Waugh (1)
- events (22)
- exhibitions (12)
- Falklands (3)
- fascism (1)
- festivals (2)
- films (13)
- food (7)
- foreign policy (3)
- foreign secretaries (2)
- fourth plinth (1)
- France (1)
- Frederick Burnaby (1)
- French history (3)
- French Revolution (1)
- French wars (1)
- funerals (2)
- gardeners (1)
- gardens (3)
- general (17)
- general history (1)
- Geoffrey Howe (2)
- George Orwell (2)
- Georgians (3)
- German history (3)
- Germany (1)
- Gertrude Himmelfarb (1)
- Gibraltar (2)
- Gladstone (2)
- Gordon Riots (1)
- Great Fire of London (1)
- Great Game (4)
- grievances (1)
- Guildhall Library (1)
- Gunpowder Plot (3)
- H. H. Asquith (1)
- Habsbugs (1)
- Hanoverians (1)
- Harold Macmillan (1)
- Hatfield House (1)
- Hayek (1)
- Hilaire Belloc (1)
- historians (38)
- historic portraits (6)
- historical dates (10)
- historical fiction (1)
- historiography (5)
- history (3)
- history of science (2)
- history teaching (8)
- History Today (12)
- history writing (1)
- hoaxes (1)
- Holocaust (1)
- House of Commons (10)
- House of Lords (1)
- Human Rights Act (1)
- Hungary (1)
- Ian Gow (1)
- India (2)
- Intelligence (1)
- IRA (2)
- Irish history (1)
- Isabella Beeton (1)
- Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1)
- Italy (1)
- Jane Austen (1)
- Jill Paton Walsh (1)
- John Buchan (4)
- John Constable (1)
- John Dickson Carr (1)
- John Wycliffe (1)
- Jonathan Swift (1)
- Josephine Tey (1)
- journalists (2)
- journals (2)
- jubilee (1)
- Judaism (1)
- Jules Verne (1)
- Kenneth Minogue (1)
- Korean War (2)
- Labour government (1)
- Labour Party (1)
- Lady Knightley of Fawsley (2)
- Leeds (1)
- legislation (1)
- Leicester (1)
- libel cases (1)
- Liberal-Democrat History Group (1)
- liberalism (2)
- Liberals (1)
- libraries (6)
- literary criticism (2)
- literary magazines (1)
- literature (7)
- local history (2)
- London (14)
- Londonderry family (1)
- Lord Acton (2)
- Lord Alfred Douglas (1)
- Lord Hailsham (1)
- Lord Leighton (1)
- Lord Randolph Churchill (3)
- Lutyens (1)
- magazines (3)
- Magna Carta (7)
- manuscripts (1)
- maps (9)
- Margaret Thatcher (21)
- media (2)
- memoirs (1)
- memorials (3)
- migration (1)
- military careers (1)
- monarchy (12)
- Munich (1)
- Museum of London (1)
- museums (5)
- music (7)
- musicals (1)
- Muslims (1)
- mythology (1)
- Napoleon (3)
- national emblems (1)
- National Portrait Gallery (2)
- nationalism (1)
- naval battles (3)
- Nazi-Soviet Pact (1)
- Nelson Mandela (1)
- Neville Chamberlain (2)
- newsreels (1)
- Norman conquest (1)
- Norman Tebbit (1)
- obituaries (25)
- Oliver Cromwell (1)
- Open House (1)
- operetta (1)
- Oxford (1)
- Palmerston (1)
- Papacy (1)
- Parliament (3)
- Peter the Great (1)
- philosophers (2)
- photography (3)
- poetry (5)
- poets (6)
- Poland (3)
- political thought (8)
- politicians (4)
- popular literature (3)
- portraits (7)
- posters (1)
- President Eisenhower (1)
- prime ministers (27)
- Primrose League (4)
- Princess Lieven (2)
- prizes (3)
- propaganda (8)
- property (3)
- publishing (2)
- Queen Elizabeth II (5)
- Queen Victoria (1)
- quotations (31)
- Regency (2)
- religion (2)
- Richard III (6)
- Robert Peel (1)
- Roman Britain (3)
- Ronald Reagan (4)
- Royal Academy (1)
- royalty (9)
- Rudyard Kipling (1)
- Russia (10)
- Russian history (2)
- Russian literature (1)
- saints (7)
- Salisbury (6)
- Samuel Johnson (1)
- Samuel Pepys (1)
- satire (1)
- scientists (1)
- Scotland (1)
- sensational fiction (1)
- Shakespeare (16)
- shipping (1)
- Sir Alec Douglas-Home (1)
- Sir Charles Napier (1)
- Sir Harold Nicolson (6)
- Sir Laurence Olivier (1)
- Sir Robert Peel (3)
- Sir William Burrell (1)
- Sir Winston Churchill (17)
- social history (2)
- socialism (2)
- Soviet Union (6)
- Spectator (1)
- sport (1)
- spy thrillers (1)
- St George (1)
- St Paul's Cathedral (1)
- Stain (1)
- Stalin (3)
- Stanhope (1)
- statues (4)
- Stuarts (3)
- suffragettes (3)
- Tate Britain (2)
- terrorism (4)
- theatre (4)
- Theresa May (1)
- thirties (2)
- Tibet (1)
- TLS (1)
- Tocqueville (1)
- Tony Benn (1)
- Tories (1)
- trade (1)
- treaties (1)
- Tudors (2)
- Tuesday Night Blogs (1)
- Turkey (3)
- Turner (2)
- TV dramatization (1)
- twentieth century (2)
- UN (1)
- utopianism (1)
- Versailles Treaty (1)
- veterans (2)
- Victorians (13)
- War of Independence (1)
- Wars of the Roses (1)
- Waterloo (5)
- websites (7)
- welfare (1)
- Whigs (4)
- William III (1)
- William Pitt the Younger (4)
- women (11)
- World War I (20)
- World War II (54)
- WWII (1)
- Xenophon (1)
Counters
Blog Archive
-
▼
2006
(89)
-
▼
May
(12)
- A left-wing historian speaks
- "How it really was"
- Lord Acton and conservative history
- The start of TV electioneering
- Wellington and the mob
- Was Churchill a Conservative?
- Comments on the blog
- Edmund Burke again
- More on Nancy Astor
- Conservative women triumphant
- Death of the first woman MP
- Compare and contrast
-
▼
May
(12)
0 comments