Wednesday, September 16, 2009

In power but not in office

There's a little row over the UK Equalities Office list of milestones for women in power. For every milestone involving the participation of a particular woman in politics, the person is named -- except for Maggie Thatcher. There is a 2nd issue. Consider this milestone --

1918 Parliamentary Qualification of Women Act passed - enabling women to stand as a Members of Parliament

1919 First woman to take a seat in Parliament - Nancy Astor


It's thus carefully written the exclude the obvious milestone of the first woman elected to the House of Commons, Constance Markiewicz (née Gore-Booth), elected for a Dublin constituency as a Sinn Fein candidate in 1918. One wonders what the calculation was in leaving out the Irish nationalist.

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