Monday, February 27, 2023

What Betty Boothroyd endured as a woman candidate in the 1950s

Betty Boothroyd, the former Commons speaker, has died at the age of 93. 

She was a warm and popular figure - my mother once suggested that, with her faux posh voice, there was a little bit of Mollie Sugden about her.

Boothroyd was defeated in four different constituencies before she held West Bromwich for Labour in a 1973 by-election. The first of these was the old Leicester South East seat, which included Oadby, where she stood in a 1957 by-election.

If you want to see what women politicians had to put up with in the Fifties, see how here selection as Labour's candidate for the seat was reported by the Leicester Evening Mail on 31 July 1956:

YORKSHIRE LASS OF 26 CHOSEN TO OPPOSE TORY 

In South-East Leicester 

A DARK-EYED YOUNG WOMAN OF 26 IS TO CONTEST LEICESTER'S SOUTH EAST CONSTITUENCY FOR LABOUR AT THE NEXT GENERAL ELECTION. 

She is Miss Betty Boothroyd, private secretary to Mr. Geoffrey de Freitas, MP. 

Her adoption is subject to endorsement by the party's National Executive Committee. Contesting the Conservative stronghold, held by Capt. Waterhouse, she will be making her entry into parliamentary elections though at 21 she contested in borough council elections. 

Vital statistics 

A parliamentary candidate's vital statistics are usually the last general election figures, writes The Evening Mall Lobby Correspondent but Miss Boothroyd has others that are also worth quoting: 38-28-40. 

This attractive Yorkshire lass should create a stir on election platforms. 

Ever since she left school and became a secretary to the Road Haulage Executive, Miss Boothroyd has been in politics. 

She was chairman of the League of Youth in Dewsbury, and later went to Transport House to work on 'Labour's Challenge to Britain.' 

Within a few months she had landed the job as secretary to Mr, de Freitas.

Betty Boothroyd made history by becoming the Commons' first female speaker. But she had already achieved much by getting to Westminster despite the way women politicians were treated in her era.

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