Sixty-eight women have been appointed to positions in the Cabinet of the United Kingdom, with three female Prime Ministers serving in cabinet. Since, by convention, members of the cabinet must be a member of either the House of Commons or House of Lords, [1] the Prime Minister could not appoint women to the cabinet until the Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act 1918 allowed women to stand for MP, and could not appoint peeresses to it until the Life Peerages Act 1958. [a]
Three women have led the cabinet as prime minister.
denotes the first female minister of that particular department.
| Image | Prime Minister | Party | Constituency | Year appointed [b] | Roles held concurrently | Ministry | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Margaret Thatcher | Conservative | Finchley | 1979 | Thatcher I | ||
| Thatcher II | |||||||
| Thatcher III | |||||||
 | Theresa May | Conservative | Maidenhead | 2016 | May I | ||
| May II | |||||||
 | Liz Truss | Conservative | South West Norfolk | 2022 | Truss | ||
denotes the first female minister of that particular department.
Some roles, such as the Attorney General, can attend cabinet meetings without being a member of the cabinet.
denotes the first female minister of that particular department.
Baroness Amos became the first black woman to be appointed to the cabinet in 2003. [88] In 2011, Justine Greening became the first member of the cabinet who was publicly known to be a lesbian, although she was not openly lesbian until 2016. [89] [90]
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest institutions in the world, its origins lie in the early 11th century and the emergence of bicameralism in the 13th century.
Valerie Ann Amos, Baroness Amos, is a British Labour Party politician and diplomat who served as the eighth UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. Before her appointment to the UN, she served as British High Commissioner to Australia. She was created a life peer in 1997, serving as Leader of the House of Lords and Lord President of the Council from 2003 to 2007.
Gillian Patricia Shephard, Baroness Shephard of Northwold,, is a British Conservative politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for South West Norfolk from 1987 to 2005. Shephard served as a Cabinet Minister, and is now Chairman of the Association of Conservative Peers.
Winifred Ann Taylor, Baroness Taylor of Bolton, is a British politician and life peer who served in the Cabinet of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2001. A member of the Labour Party, she was Member of Parliament (MP) for Bolton West from 1974 to 1983, and Dewsbury from 1987 to 2005.
Eleanor Fulton Laing, Baroness Laing of Elderslie,, is a British Conservative Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Epping Forest from 1997 to 2024. She served in the shadow cabinets of Michael Howard and David Cameron. From 2013 to 2024, Laing was a Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons and was the first female Chairman of Ways and Means from 2020 to 2024. She had one of the longest tenures in the speaker's chair. She became a member of the House of Lords in 2024.
Angela Evans Smith, Baroness Smith of Basildon,, is a British politician and life peer serving as Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal since 2024. A member of the Labour and Co-operative Parties, she was Member of Parliament (MP) for Basildon from 1997 to 2010.
Angela Lavinia Bray, Baroness Bray of Coln is a British Conservative Party politician who was the Member of the London Assembly for West Central from 2000 to 2008, and Member of Parliament (MP) for Ealing Central and Acton from 2010 to 2015.
The Life Peerages Act 1958 established the modern standards for the creation of life peers by the Sovereign of the United Kingdom.
Barbara Mary Keeley, Baroness Keeley, is a British Labour Party politician. She served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Worsley and Eccles South, previously Worsley, from 2005 to 2024, and has been a member of the House of Lords since 2024.
Sayeeda Hussain Warsi, Baroness Warsi, is a British lawyer, politician, and member of the House of Lords who served as co-chairwoman of the Conservative Party from 2010 to 2012. She served in the Cameron–Clegg coalition, first as the Minister without portfolio between 2010 and 2012, then as the Minister of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and as the Minister of State for Faith and Communities, until her resignation citing her disagreement with the Government's policy relating to the Israel–Gaza conflict in August 2014. In September 2024 Baroness Warsi resigned the Whip and left the Conservative Party.
Rachel Trixie Anne Gardner, Baroness Gardner of Parkes, was an Australian-born British dentist and Conservative member of the House of Lords, in which she served for over 40 years. She was the first Australian woman to have been elevated to the peerage, and was the senior life peer in the House of Lords at the time of her death.
The representation of women in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom has been an issue in the politics of the United Kingdom at numerous points in the 20th and 21st centuries. Originally debate centred on whether women should be allowed to vote and stand for election as Members of Parliament. The Parliament Act 1918 gave women over 21 the right to stand for election as a Member of Parliament. The United Kingdom has had three female Prime Ministers: Margaret Thatcher (1979–1990), Theresa May (2016–2019), and Liz Truss (2022). The publication of the book Women in the House by Elizabeth Vallance in 1979 highlighted the under-representation of women in Parliament. In more modern times concerns about the under-representation of women led the Labour Party to introduce and, decades later, abandon all-women short lists, something which was later held to breach discrimination laws.
Jennifer Chapman, Baroness Chapman of Darlington is a British politician and life peer who has served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Latin America and Caribbean since July 2024. A member of the Labour Party, she served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Darlington from 2010 to 2019.
These are lists of people who belong to non-European ethnic minorities and have been elected as Members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, European Parliament, and other British devolved bodies, as well as members of the non-elected House of Lords.
Natalie Jessica Evans, Baroness Evans of Bowes Park,, is a British politician and member of the House of Lords. A member of the Conservative Party, she was made a life peer in 2014 and from 2016 to 2022 was Leader of the House of Lords. She was the first Leader of the House of Lords to serve under two different prime ministers since Lord Shepherd in 1974, and the longest serving Lords leader since 1951.
Simone Jari Finn, Baroness Finn, is a British-American businesswoman and Conservative politician who served as Downing Street Deputy Chief of Staff from February 2021 until the end of the second Johnson Ministry.
Charlotte Sarah Emily Vere, Baroness Vere of Norbiton is a British Conservative politician and member of the House of Lords. She also serves as a Parliamentary Secretary in HM Treasury and was executive director of the Girls' Schools Association from 2013 to 2016.
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 were life peeresses appointed by the Prime Minister, although countesses had appeared in medieval times.
Joanna Carolyn Penn, Baroness Penn, known as JoJo Penn, is a British political advisor. She was a baroness-in-waiting from March 2020 to September 2022. From November 2023 to March 2024, she was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Housing and Communities in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
