Women in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom

Originally debate centred on whether women should be allowed to vote and stand for election as Members of Parliament.

[1] In more modern times concerns about the under-representation of women led the Labour Party to introduce and, decades later, abandon all-women short lists, something which was later held to breach discrimination laws.

The female member of Parliament with the longest period of continuous service is informally known as the Mother of the House, who is Diane Abbott, following the 2024 election.

[4] In 1832 Henry Hunt became the first MP to raise the issue of women's suffrage in the House of Commons,[5] followed in 1867 by John Stuart Mill.

However, Sir Herbert Samuel, the former Liberal Home Secretary, moved a separate motion on 23 October 1918 to allow women to be eligible as Members of Parliament.

In February 2018 the Electoral Reform Society reported that hundreds of seats were being effectively 'reserved' by men, holding back women's representation.

All-women shortlists are a method of affirmative action which has been used by the Labour Party to increase the representation of women in Parliament.

In response to this ruling the Sex Discrimination (Election Candidates) Act 2002 legalised all-women short lists as a method of selection.

Ahead of the 2024 general election, HuffPost reported in March 2022 that Labour stopped using all-women shortlists, citing legal advice that continuing to use them for choosing parliamentary candidates would become an "unlawful" practice again under the Equality Act.