Nancy Astor was ‘An Unconventional MP’. The first woman to take her seat in the House of Commons, she represented Plymouth Sutton constituency from 1919-1945.
This website shares research and resources relating to Astor and the gendered political culture of the early twentieth century, providing a new voice and a new legacy for how we think about women’s role in politics and our heritage. It engages with ways in which history has influenced the present, considers how the identities of Astor and other women of the time were constructed, and how they generated discourses on government, citizenship and transformation.
Astor100
2019 marked the centenary of Nancy Astor’s election to the British Parliament, and was commemorated by the Astor100 project. As part of Astor100 an Open Library of Humanities collection addressed a range of approaches to Astor and her time.
The collection is edited by Dr Daniel Grey and Dr Jacqui Turner. Daniel Grey is Head of History at Hertfordshire and has published extensively on women, crime and the state. Jacqui Turner is Associate Professor of Modern British Political History and curator of the national Astor100 centenary programme.
This research group engages beyond Astor as an individual, facilitating a wider celebration of what she represented for women. We welcome contributions.
