International Women’s Day

Baroness Taylor of Stevenage Excerpts

Friday 10th March 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

My Lords—and Ladies, as I feel I should say today—I add my tributes to those paid to Betty Boothroyd. I never knew her; I came into this House, sadly, after she last spoke here. It was always such an inspiration to hear both a working-class and a northern voice speaking from the House of Commons and then from this House. I am sorry that the noble Baroness, Lady Lampard, is no longer in her seat, but I thank her for her maiden speech and for her work at GambleAware; it is so important in my community.

Too often, I knock on doors when campaigning at election time to be told that the resident does not understand politics or voting. Too often, this is said by women. It is time—it is well past time, actually—that we make the history and understanding of democracy part of our education all the way through school. There are stories that can truly bring this to life and I will talk today about one that inspired me.

Tomorrow morning, my noble friend Lady Thornton and I, along with members of the Stevenage and North Herts group of the Fawcett Society—both sisters and brothers, I am pleased to say—will be visiting the beautiful grounds of Knebworth House in Hertfordshire to celebrate the life and courage of one of the great and lesser-known heroines of the suffragette movement: Lady Constance Lytton. She was born into an aristocratic family; her father, Robert Bulwer-Lytton, the first Earl of Lytton, was Governor-General of India and it was he who made the proclamation that Queen Victoria was the Empress of India. In 1905, Lady Constance started to become involved with the Espérance Club, founded in response to the distressing conditions for girls in the London dress trade. In 1908, through her contacts in the Espérance Club, she met released suffragette prisoners with whom she discussed the cause of women’s suffrage—although, at the time, she remained unconvinced by their methods. She began a lifelong campaign on prison reform and continued her discussions with leading members of the movement.

Then, in 1909, she became a member of the Women’s Social and Political Union, later stating:

“Women had tried repeatedly, and always in vain, every peaceable means open to them of influencing successive governments. Processions and petitions were absolutely useless.”


She started to make speeches around the country for the WSPU and used her family connections to campaign in Parliament. She wrote to Home Secretary, Herbert Gladstone, asking for Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst to be released from prison and for suffragettes to be treated as political prisoners. She soon became involved in the active campaigning of the movement and was imprisoned twice in Holloway after demonstrations at the House of Commons. When the authorities discovered that she was the daughter of Lord Lytton, fearing that her ill health and hunger striking would lead to martyrdom, they ordered her release and she wrote to the Liverpool Daily Post to complain about the favourable treatment that she had received.

In 1910, distressed by that difference between her treatment and that of poorer prisoners, Lady Lytton travelled to Liverpool having disguised herself as a working-class London seamstress, Jane Warton. She was arrested there after speaking against force-feeding at an event and after an incident where rocks were thrown at an MP’s car. Imprisoned in Walton Gaol for 14 days’ hard labour, she was force-fed eight times. Even today, well over 100 years later, her descriptions of force-feeding are an incredibly harrowing, difficult read. Using her traumatic personal experience, she went on to campaign against the conditions that the suffragettes endured. It is thought that she was instrumental in helping to end the practice of force-feeding.

Lady Constance never recovered from her prison treatment and her subsequent heart attacks and strokes further weakened her fragile health. She died in 1923, aged just 54. At her funeral, the purple, white and green suffragette colours were laid on her coffin. Her ashes lie in the family mausoleum in Knebworth Park, where we will gather tomorrow to lay green, purple and white flowers in her memory.

But memorial is empty without action; action hinges on education about the consequences and impact of gender inequality. We may have achieved universal suffrage in this country, but we continue to see the impact of gender inequality both here and around the world. We have heard powerful advocacy during the debate for the journey to continue towards equality in employment, pay, education, health treatment and childcare, and to end the horror of violence against women and girls. I thank my honourable friend Jess Phillips MP for yesterday so movingly reading the names of the women killed in violent attacks, which are still at more than 100 a year. I also thank my noble friend Lady Anderson for her advocacy today for those who pay the ultimate price for speaking out.

We remember the battles for fairness in maternity and carers’ leave, which were in front of your Lordships’ House again just last week in Private Members’ Bills. On the issues that Lady Constance campaigned on, we still have a long way to go on prison reform. Our democracy at least enables progress, albeit glacial on some issues. However, we are all horrified to hear of the closing down of the education and employment of women and girls in Afghanistan and Iran. Worse still, we heard reports this week of girls attending schools in Iran being hospitalised due to noxious gases being released into their classrooms. I hope our FCDO Ministers are asking questions of the Iranian Government about this and continuing to make our views on gender-based violence clear, wherever it occurs.

The legacy of our courageous sisters, including Lady Constance, should and does spur us on to continue to champion the cause of gender equality. Keeping their stories alive, and the fight they had to ensure we can vote out those who do not take our issues seriously, is still and always will be a cause worth fighting for. Sisters, the fight goes on. Brothers, thank you for your support—but, as this is so important, can we get a bit of a lick on, please?