Women in the House of Lords
The first women in the House of Lords took their seats in 1958, forty years after women were granted the right to stand as MPs in the House of Commons. These women were life peers appointed by the Prime Minister. Women hereditary peers were able to sit in the Lords from 1963. Since 2015, the first female Church of England bishops have been sitting as Lords Spiritual. Today, women make up just over a quarter of the members of the Lords, which compares with a third of the members of the Commons. History. The  very first woman to address the House of Lords (as a witness – not a peer) was Mrs Elizabeth Robinson (née Hastings; 1695–1779) from Gibraltar, when she gave evidence and testimony about slave trafficking. Women were excluded from the House of Lords until the Life Peerages Act 1958, which was passed to address the declining number of active members. The Act made possible the creation of peerages for life. Women were immediately eligible and four were among the first life peers appointed, including Baroness Wootton of Abinger, who was the first woman to be appointed, and Baroness Swanborough, who was the  first to take her seat. However, hereditary peeresses continued to be excluded until the passage of the Peerage Act 1963; the first to take her seat was Baroness Strange of Knokin. The first female chief whip was Baroness Llewelyn-Davies of Hastoe in 1973. Janet Young, Baroness Young was the first woman leader of the House of Lords in 1981. Brenda Hale, Baroness Hale of Richmond became the first female Law Lord in 2004. Since the passage of the House of Lords Act 1999, hereditary peeresses remain eligible for election to the Upper House. Five were elected in 1999 among  the 92 hereditary peers who continued to sit. Of these, three have since died, and the other two retired in 2014 and 2020. (Margaret of Mar, 31st Countess of Mar was the last remaining female hereditary peer in the Lords when she retired). Four of these were replaced by male peers in by-elections. The fifth vacancy, left by the Countess of Mar's retirement on 1 May 2020, remained open long past the usual three-month post-vacancy deadline. It, too, was later filled by a male peer, when Lord Londesborough, a crossbencher, was elected to replace her in  July 2021, when by-elections resumed (after their temporary suspension by the House of Lords due to the Covid-19 pandemic). Following a change to the law in 2014 to allow women to be ordained bishops, the Lords Spiritual (Women) Act 2015 was passed, which provides that whenever a vacancy arises among the Lords Spiritual during the ten years following the Act coming into force, the vacancy has to be filled by a woman, if one is eligible. This does not apply to the five bishops who sit by right (one of whom is female, ). In 2015, Rachel Treweek, Bishop of  Gloucester, became the first woman to sit as a Lord Spiritual in the House of Lords due to the Act. , five women bishops sit as Lord Spirituals in the House of Lords. Numbers. There are 222 female peers out of 798 (28%) in the House of Lords as of October 2020, up from 199 out of 826 (24%) in 2015, 176 out of 771 (23%) in 2013, and 164 out of 777 (21%) in 2010. Compared with the House of Commons, women make up slightly fewer of the total members of the Lords; 220 out of 650 (34%) of the  members of the Commons are women as of October 2020, up from 32% after the 2017 General Election.