Angela Mason

Cllr
Angela Mason
CBE
Cllr Angela Mason CBE
	Angela Mason, speaking at the CHE conference, 2010
Director of Stonewall (1992–2002); Chairman of The Fawcett Society (since 2007)
Domestic partner	Elizabeth Wilson
Children	1 daughter
Education	Basingstoke High School
Alma mater	Bedford College, University of London ; London School of Economics
Occupation	activist

Last updated December 03, 2023

William Mason

(m. 1971⁠–⁠1980)

(divorced)

Angela Margaret Mason^[2] CBE ^[3] (born 9 August 1944) is a British civil servant and activist, and a former director of the UK-based lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender lobbying organisation Stonewall. She is a former Chair of the Fawcett Society, a UK women's rights campaigning organisation and a Labour Party councillor in Camden.^[4]

Early life

Born Angela Margaret Weir in High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, she grew up on the Isle of Sheppey and was educated at Basingstoke High School, Bedford College, University of London, and the London School of Economics.^[5] She was an early member of the Gay Liberation Front in the UK.

Terrorism charges

She was one of the Stoke Newington Eight, who in 1972 were charged with planting or sending bombs which aimed to maim or kill government Ministers, their families and Conservative Party officials. She was one of the four accused who was acquitted following a long and still controversial trial.^[6] Mason still refuses to discuss the trial in interviews as of 2016.^[update]^[7]

Mason was an activist in the trade union and radical movements.

Career after Angry Brigade

Mason became a lecturer at the LSE then the Principal Solicitor for the London Borough of Camden. She became a member of gay rights organisation Stonewall in 1989, becoming its director in 1992.

In government

From 2003 to 2007, she was the director of the UK government's Women and Equality Unit, now the Government Equalities Office, with her high salary attracting media attention.^[8] Mason has also been a member of the Equal Opportunities Commission and an advisor to the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone. Controversially she used her position as a senior civil servant to oppose one measure of legislative equality for gay people – protections against discrimination in the delivery of public and commercial services – in 2005 and 2006.^[9] She was, however, unsuccessful and the measure was passed in the Equality Act 2006. She was awarded the OBE in 1999^[10] and promoted to CBE in 2007.^[3]

Since 2007, she has been an advisor to IDeA, a government quango which provides guidelines and regulations for all local authorities in England on equality issues. She was also appointed as Chair of the feminist group the Fawcett Society in the same year.

In 2010, she was elected as a Labour councillor to Camden London Borough Council; she represented the borough's Cantelowes ward.^[11] She served as Deputy Leader of the borough council, and cabinet member for sustainability but was dismissed from the roles in May 2011.^[4] She was, however, reappointed to the Council's Cabinet the following year, and was Cabinet Member for Children until her retirement from the council in 2022.

Personal life

Mason married scriptwriter William Mason in 1971, they divorced in 1980 with Mason retaining her married surname. She is in a Civil Partnership with Marxist academic Elizabeth Wilson and has a daughter who was conceived by artificial insemination.^[7]^[8]^[12]

Later life

The archives of Angela Mason and Elizabeth Wilson are held at The Women's Library at the Library of the London School of Economics, ref 7EAW.

Related Research Articles

Sir Benjamin Peter James Bradshaw is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport from 2009 to 2010. A member of the Labour Party, he has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Exeter since 1997. Before entering politics he worked as a BBC Radio reporter.

Hilary James Wedgwood Benn is a British politician who has served as Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland since 2023. A member of the Labour Party, he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leeds Central since a by-election in 1999. He served in the Cabinet from 2003 to 2010, under both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. He also served as Shadow Foreign Secretary from 2015 to 2016 and as Chairman of the Brexit Select Committee from 2016 to 2021.

Theresa Mary, Lady May, is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served in David Cameron's cabinet as Home Secretary from 2010 to 2016, and has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Maidenhead in Berkshire since 1997. May was the UK's second female prime minister, after Margaret Thatcher, and the first woman to hold two of the Great Offices of State. Ideologically, May identifies herself as a one-nation conservative.

Maria Eagle is a British politician who served in the governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. She later served in the Shadow cabinets of Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn. A member of the Labour Party, she has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Garston and Halewood, previously Liverpool Garston, since 1997.

Stonewall Equality Limited, trading as Stonewall, is a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights charity in the United Kingdom. It is the largest LGBT rights organisation in Europe.

Lynne Choona Featherstone, Baroness Featherstone, is a British politician, businesswoman and Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords.

Ben Jeffrey Peter Summerskill is chair of The Silver Line and director of the Criminal Justice Alliance, a consortium of 135 charities working across the GB criminal justice pathway. He was the chief executive of the UK-based lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality organisation Stonewall, the largest gay equality body in Europe, from 2003 to 2014. He has also worked as a businessman and journalist. Summerskill is an occasional contributor to The Guardian, The Independent on Sunday, The Observer, The Times, Time Out and other publications. In 2015 he won a Lifetime Achievement Award at the British LGBT Awards In 2017, he was appointed by the UK government to the council (Board) of ACAS, the Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service. He was first appointed a trustee of the Silver Line in 2017.

Dawn Petula Butler is a British Labour Party politician who has been a Member of Parliament (MP) for Brent Central since 2015.

Linda Ann Bellos is a British businesswoman, radical feminist and gay-rights activist. In 1981 she became the first woman of African descent to join the Spare Rib collective. She was elected to Lambeth Borough Council in London in 1985 and was the leader of the council from 1986 to 1988.

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.

The Fawcett Society is a membership charity in the United Kingdom which campaigns for women's rights. The organisation dates back to 1866, when Millicent Garrett Fawcett dedicated her life to the peaceful campaign for women's suffrage. Originally named the London National Society for Women's Suffrage, and later as the London Society for Women's Suffrage, the organization was renamed The Fawcett Society in 1953.

Margaret Theresa Prosser, Baroness Prosser, is a Labour life peer and former trade unionist.

Tessa Jane Helen Douglas Jowell, Baroness Jowell, was a British Labour Party politician and life peer who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Dulwich and West Norwood, previously Dulwich, from 1992 to 2015.

Meral Hussein Ece, Baroness Hussein-Ece, is a British Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords. She is the first woman of Turkish Cypriot origin to be a member of either house of Parliament after she was appointed a Liberal Democrat working peer on 28 May 2010. She was the Liberal Democrat Spokeswoman for Equalities from 2015 until 2016, under leader Tim Farron.

Camden London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Camden in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. Camden is divided into 20 wards, each electing two or three councillors.

Ruth Elizabeth Hunt, Baroness Hunt of Bethnal Green is a Welsh administrator who was Chief Executive of UK-based lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans equality charity Stonewall, the largest LGBT equality body in Europe, from 2014 until her resignation in 2019.

Sarah Hayward is a British Labour Party politician who was Leader of the London Borough of Camden from 2012 to 2017. She successfully challenged Nasim Ali for leadership of the Labour group in 2012.

Ruth Margaret Cadbury is a British politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Brentford and Isleworth since 2015. A member of the Labour Party, she has been Shadow Minister for Prisons, Parole and Probation since 2023. A former planning consultant, Cadbury previously served on the opposition front bench as Shadow Minister for Housing from 2016 to 2017, Shadow Minister for Planning in 2021 and Shadow Minister for International Trade from 2021 to 2023.

Marsha Chantal de Cordova is a British politician serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Battersea since 2017. A member of the Labour Party, she was a Member of Lambeth London Borough Council from 2014 to 2018.

References

↑ "Researcha" . Retrieved 4 December 2013.^{[ dead link ]}
↑ Researcha.co.uk
1 2 "No. 58557". The London Gazette (Supplement). 29 December 2007. pp. 7–8.
1 2 "Ditching of deputy leader Angela Mason sparks an F-word quarrel". Camden New Journal. Archived from the original on 26 August 2014. Retrieved 4 December 2013.
↑ Bright, Martin (24 November 2002). "The Observer profile: Angela Mason". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 12 March 2016. Retrieved 11 February 2020.
↑ Martin Bright (3 February 2002). "Investigation: The Angry Brigade". Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 1 June 2016. Retrieved 26 June 2010.
1 2 Lucy Ward and Tania Branigan (14 November 2007). "Interview: Angela Mason". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 26 June 2010.
1 2 A Labour crony is made [pounds sterling]80,000 voice of Britain's women; From anarchist bomb trial defendant to Establishment pillar., 22 November 2002
↑ Ward, Lucy; Branigan, Tania (14 November 2007). "Interview: Angela Mason". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 11 February 2020.
↑ "Officers of the Order of the British Empire (OBE)". BBC News. London. 12 June 1999. Archived from the original on 6 January 2007. Retrieved 14 September 2011.
↑ "Cantelowes – Camden elections 2010". .camden.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 21 June 2010. Retrieved 26 June 2010.
↑ Bright, Martin (24 November 2002). "The Observer profile: Angela Mason". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 12 March 2016. Retrieved 13 December 2016.

External links

The Women's Library at the Library of the London School of Economics

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] "Researcha" . Retrieved 4 December 2013.^{[ dead link ]}

[2] Researcha.co.uk

[LG58557-3] 1 2 "No. 58557". The London Gazette (Supplement). 29 December 2007. pp. 7–8.

[camdennewjournal.com-4] 1 2 "Ditching of deputy leader Angela Mason sparks an F-word quarrel". Camden New Journal. Archived from the original on 26 August 2014. Retrieved 4 December 2013.

[5] Bright, Martin (24 November 2002). "The Observer profile: Angela Mason". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 12 March 2016. Retrieved 11 February 2020.

[6] Martin Bright (3 February 2002). "Investigation: The Angry Brigade". Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 1 June 2016. Retrieved 26 June 2010.

[guardian2007-7] 1 2 Lucy Ward and Tania Branigan (14 November 2007). "Interview: Angela Mason". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 26 June 2010.

[autogenerated1-8] 1 2 A Labour crony is made [pounds sterling]80,000 voice of Britain's women; From anarchist bomb trial defendant to Establishment pillar., 22 November 2002

[9] Ward, Lucy; Branigan, Tania (14 November 2007). "Interview: Angela Mason". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 11 February 2020.

[10] "Officers of the Order of the British Empire (OBE)". BBC News. London. 12 June 1999. Archived from the original on 6 January 2007. Retrieved 14 September 2011.

[11] "Cantelowes – Camden elections 2010". .camden.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 21 June 2010. Retrieved 26 June 2010.

[12] Bright, Martin (24 November 2002). "The Observer profile: Angela Mason". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 12 March 2016. Retrieved 13 December 2016.

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]