Betty Boothroyd

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The Rt Hon. Baroness Boothroyd
Speaker of the House of Commons
In office 27 April 1992 – 23 October 2000
Preceded by	Bernard Weatherill
Succeeded by	Michael Martin

Born	October 8, 1929 (age 77) Dewsbury, England
Political party	Labour

Betty Boothroyd, Baroness Boothroyd, OM, PC (born October 8, 1929 in Dewsbury, England), is a British politician and was the first female Speaker of the House of Commons.

Boothroyd was born in Dewsbury, Yorkshire, in 1929, to Archibald and Mary Boothroyd, textile workers. She was educated at council schools and went on to study at Dewsbury College of Commerce and Art. In the 1940s, she enjoyed a career as a dancer, as a member of the Tiller Girls dancing troupe in her younger years.

Boothroyd contested parliamentary seats at Leicester South East (1957 by-election) and Peterborough (1959) before travelling to the United States in 1960 to witness the Kennedy campaign. She subsequently began work in Washington as a legislative assistant for an American Congressman, Silvio Conte, between 1960 and 1962. When she returned to London she continued her work as secretary and political assistant to various senior Labour politicians. In 1965 she was elected to a seat on Hammersmith Borough Council, in Gibbs Green ward, where she remained until 1968.

She entered Parliament as the Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for West Bromwich in a by-election in 1973. Boothroyd's career then flourished. In 1974 she was appointed an assistant Government Whip and she was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 1975-1977. In 1979 she became a member of the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs, until 1981, and of the Speaker's Panel of Chairmen, until 1987. She was also a member of the Labour Party National Executive Committee (NEC) from 1981-1987 and the House of Commons Commission from 1983-1987. She became a Deputy Speaker in 1987. In 1992 she was elected Speaker, being the first woman ever to hold the position. She was not the first woman to sit in the Speaker's Chair, however; that honour fell to Betty Harvie Anderson, a Deputy Speaker from 1970 to 1973. There was some debate as to whether or not Boothroyd should wear the traditional Speaker's wig upon her election. In the end she did not, and the tradition was abolished as a result. In 1993, the Social Chapter of the Maastricht Treaty was defeated on her vote.

Boothroyd stepped down in 2000, and resigned as an MP, being succeeded by Michael Martin as Speaker.

Boothroyd was Chancellor of the Open University from 1994 until October 2006 and has donated some of her personal papers to the University's archives. She is an Honorary Fellow of St Hugh's College, Oxford

In 2001 she was created a Life Peer, taking as her title Baroness Boothroyd of Sandwell in the West Midlands. Her autobiography was published in 2001. In April 2005 she was appointed to the Order of Merit, an honour which is still in the personal gift of the Queen.

She is unmarried and has no children. She has remained physically active, taking up paragliding while on holiday in Cyprus in her sixties. She has described the hobby as both "lovely and peaceful" and "exhilarating".

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Constituency Created	Member of Parliament for West Bromwich West 1973–2000	Succeeded by Adrian Bailey
Political offices
Preceded by Bernard Weatherill	Speaker of the House of Commons 1992 – 2000	Succeeded by Michael Martin

Speakers of the House of Commons (20^th Century)
William Court Gully \| James William Lowther \| John Henry Whitley \| Edward FitzRoy \| Douglas Clifton Brown \| William Morrison \| Harry Hylton-Foster \| Horace King \| Selwyn Lloyd \| George Thomas \| Bernard Weatherill \| Betty Boothroyd