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Astor 100 and women’s parliamentary history: where do we go from here?

The History of Parliament Trust is delighted to invite you to our event in collaboration with the University of Reading on Wednesday 26th February in the Attlee Suite, Portcullis House, Westminster, from 18.00 to 20.30.

Join us for a panel discussion to explore the successes of the Astor 100 project, which took place throughout 2019 to mark 100 years of women in the House of Commons, as well as the lessons learnt for “doing” women’s parliamentary history in the public sphere. Our panellists are Dr Jacqui Turner (national programme lead for Astor 100), Alexis Bowater (the driving force behind the Lady Astor statue campaign), Hayley Gibbs (sculptor), and Professor Julie Gottlieb (expert in early twentieth century women’s political history and historical consultant for the Millicent Fawcett statue).

This event will be a forum to discuss women’s political history and its integration into the narrative of parliamentary history following the UK Parliament Vote 100 project in 2018 (which marked 100 years of votes for women) and Astor 100. We will invite questions and comments after the panel discussion, followed by the opportunity to view the Astor 100 touring display and chat with our panellists.

Notes on speakers

Jacqui Turner is Associate Professor of Modern British Political History at the University of Reading. She researches Nancy Astor and early female MPs largely between 1919 and 1931, working with the personal Papers of Nancy Astor. Jacqui is the academic and national programme lead for the Astor100 project and historical consultant for the Lady Astor statue in Plymouth.

Alexis Bowater (Bowater Communications) is an award-winning journalist and the Chair of the Nancy Astor Statue Committee. She led the campaign to raise a statue of Nancy Astor in collaboration with the Plymouth Women in Business Network. Alexis anchored the evening news in the ITV Westcountry region for seven years before becoming a campaigning Chief Executive of national charity Network for Surviving Stalking.

Hayley Gibbs is the sculptor of the Nancy Astor Statue, whose design was chosen by competitive bid. She delivered and installed the statue within 12 months. Hayley is an established sculptor based in South London. She is a member of the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST) and has created work for some historic sites including a life size bronze statue of William Shakespeare in collaboration with Raphael Maklouf.

Julie Gottlieb is Professor of Modern History at the University of Sheffield. She has published extensively on the history of politicization of women, and the feminisation of politics in the aftermath of suffrage in 20th century Britain, and has featured Nancy Astor in many of her works. Julie worked with the media to provide historical framing for the commemorative events of 2018 and 2019 and acted as historical advisor to artist Gillian Wearing on the statue of Millicent Garrett Fawcett that was unveiled in Parliament Square in April 2018.

Attendance is free, but you must register here in order to attend. Visitors to Portcullis House are advised to bring their ticket and photo ID. Please note that you will have to go through airport-style security to gain entrance to Parliament; we recommend arriving 20 minutes before the start of the event – at busy times there is often a queue. For more information on security and gaining access to the parliamentary estate please click here.

Please contact cjeffery@histparl.ac.uk with any queries.

For further details and to register

Details

Date:
26th February 2020
Time:
6:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Event Tags:
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Venue

Portcullis House
United Kingdom + Google Map