The Rt. Hon. Baroness Betty Boothroyd OM PC

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A woman wearing a red blazer sitting with her elbows resting on a table. Behind her the room contains large paintings and gilt bronze decorations.
Photograph © Anita Corbin

 

First Woman Speaker of the House of Commons

April 2010, Royal Gallery, Houses of Parliament, London

b.1929, Yorkshire

Baroness Berry Boothroyd served as a Member of Parliament for 27 years. She was elected the first, and to date only female Speaker of the House of the Commons in 1992 aged 63 and held the post for 8 years. The role of Speaker is as old as parliament itself, this title held exclusively by men since 1377. Baroness Boothroyd was elevated to the Peerage in 2001 and serves in the Lords. She was patron of the Monument of the Women of World War Two which stands in the centre of Whitehall. She is president of the Emmeline Pankhurst Trust. Baroness Betty Boothroyd is Patron of First Women UK.

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