{"id":394,"date":"2019-05-02T16:55:33","date_gmt":"2019-05-02T15:55:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/?p=394"},"modified":"2020-08-07T11:50:14","modified_gmt":"2020-08-07T10:50:14","slug":"nancy-astor-a-mother-in-the-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/astor100\/nancy-astor-a-mother-in-the-house\/","title":{"rendered":"Nancy Astor: A Mother in the House by Dr Jacqui Turner"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blog post from The History of Parliament<\/a> by<\/em>\u00a0Dr Jacqui Turner<\/a>\u00a0<\/i>from the University of Reading and\u00a0<\/i>PhD student, Kate Meanwell<\/em>, discussing Nancy Astor\u2019s role as a mother to her five children as well as a representative of mothers and women as the first female MP to be elected to the House of Commons in 1919:<\/i><\/p>\n

Nancy Astor was not just the first woman to take her seat in the House of Commons, she was the first wife and the first mother. Throughout her 1919 by-election campaign, the images painted of Nancy Astor were of \u2018A fighting woman\u2019 for Plymouth Sutton; \u2018A voice for women and children\u2019; \u2018A champion of the disadvantaged\u2019; \u2018A woman, wife and mother\u2019 and in turns a \u2018proxy\u2019 for her husband. Astor\u2019s image was constructed and deployed as deemed necessary though the issue that caused the greatest debate was that of Astor as a working mother.<\/p>\n

Viscountess Astor won the by election in 1919 and became the first female voice heard in the chamber of House of Commons.\u00a0 She was elected to Plymouth Sutton in\u00a0 with more votes than the Labour and Liberal candidates combined, replacing her husband as the sitting Conservative and Unionist MP after he ascended to the House of Lords on the death of his father.\u00a0 Nancy\u2019s time in the seat was initially intended to be temporary as Waldorf worked to extricate himself from the Lords and return to his seat in the Commons or negotiate a means of sitting in both. He could not.<\/p>\n

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In addition to her position as a role model and voice for women, what seemed to make Nancy the \u201cright woman\u201d in many minds was her ability to embody ordinary \u2018feminine virtues\u2019 associated with mothers and caregivers. In addition to being the first woman in the House, Nancy was the first mother to take her seat \u2013 she entered Parliament when her youngest child was under two years old.<\/p>\n

It may have been a useful device in the campaign to present Nancy as in some way \u2018tried and tested\u2019, lending her a sense of familiarity and credibility, but her position and standing was nevertheless unique and indeed historic. Many correspondents sum up the multi-faceted nature of Nancy\u2019s appeal as a woman as \u201ca threefold representative: as woman, wife, mother\u2026\u201d(MS 1416\/1\/1\/1721 \u2013 Letter from staff at The Observer, dated 29 Nov 1919). Undermining the idea that Nancy ever could have provided a seamless link with what had gone before. It may have been a case of \u201cAstor once again\u201d but it seemed likely that the similarities were confined to their shared name and Plymouth Sutton constituency.<\/p>\n

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(c) The Box (Plymouth Museums Galleries Archive)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

This met with approbation amongst some of those who wrote to congratulate Nancy on her election \u2013 clearly, she was joining the ranks alongside many other parents. Nevertheless, in view of their wealth and privilege it may be that in this respect Nancy had more in common with the fathers she was joining than some of the mothers she was representing; one correspondent commented that \u201cit will be a good thing to have in Parliament one who knows by experience as a mother\u2026the responsibilities of the family\u201d, although her day-to-day responsibilities in terms of her family were very different from the average voter (MS 1416\/1\/1\/1723, Letter from B N Swinson, 29 November 1919).<\/p>\n

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There were dissenting voices who expressed concern at Nancy\u2019s maternal status. Nancy\u2019s opening speech at the meeting of the Party Association stated:<\/em><\/p>\n

I have heard it said that a woman who has got children shouldn\u2019t go into the House of Commons. She ought to be home looking after her children. This is true, but I feel someone ought to be looking after the more unfortunate children. My children are among the fortunate ones, and it is that that steels me to go to the House of Commons to fight the fight, not only of the men but of the women and children of England.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While for the most part the press did not make a feature of Nancy\u2019s status as a mother; it is interesting to note when it did, she was consistently presented in a positive light and was feted as an \u201cexpert on matters pertaining to motherhood and womanhood\u201d, suggesting it was a pioneering asset to her candidacy and appealing to Nancy\u2019s own \u2018difference feminism\u2019 (MS 146\/1\/1\/31 \u2013 Press cuttings 1919, Liverpool Courier, 8 November 1919). Inevitably, photographs were circulated of Nancy with her husband and children,\u00a0The Sunday Pictorial<\/em>\u00a0of 9 November 1919 ran a photograph of Nancy with all six of her children, captioned \u201c\u201cOUR NANCY\u201d AND HER BEST SUPPORTERS\u201d.<\/p>\n

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\u201c\u201dOUR NANCY\u201d AND HER BEST SUPPORTERS\u201d,\u00a0The Sunday Pictorial, 9 November 1919<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Nancy\u2019s maternal status was a previously unarticulated benefit for any MP and was a legitimate and logical extension of her position as a mother. However, the significance of Nancy\u2019s maternal status should not be overstated \u2013the idea of Nancy as a mother was dwarfed by the overwhelming and all-encompassing difference of Nancy being the first woman MP.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Nancy was taken at her word and viewed as a special representative for vulnerable and disadvantaged members of society, in much the same way as she was regarded by many as a special representative for women.\u00a0The Observer<\/em>\u00a0told Nancy \u201cwe are convinced that all your actions in the House of Commons will be on the side of those least able to speak or act for themselves.\u201d (MS 1416\/1\/1\/1721 \u2013 Letter from staff at The Observer, 29 Nov 1919)<\/p>\n

An ambitious agenda lay before her.<\/p>\n

JT\/KM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blog post from The History of Parliament by\u00a0Dr Jacqui Turner\u00a0from the University of Reading and\u00a0PhD student, Kate Meanwell, discussing Nancy Astor\u2019s role as a mother to her five children as…Read More ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":219,"featured_media":420,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"__cvm_playback_settings":[],"__cvm_video_id":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[11],"class_list":["post-394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-events","tag-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nNancy Astor: A Mother in the House by Dr Jacqui Turner | Nancy Astor and Gendered Interwar Politics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, 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