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Nancy Langhorne was born in the United States in 1879. She moved to England, married Viscount Astor, and became the first woman ever to sit in the House of Commons, a position she held from 1919 to 1945. As Lady Astor, her politics were often questionable—she was among those who sought to appease the Fascists in the 1930s—but her door-opening role for women in politics made her an important figure. The following comments are excerpted from a 1922 address at Town Hall in New York City.

              My entrance into the House of Commons was not, as some thought, in the nature of a revolution. It was an evolution. My husband was the one who started me off on this downward path—from the fireside to public life. If I have helped the cause of women, he is the one to thank, not me. A woman in the House of Commons! It was almost enough to have broken up the House. I don’t blame them—it was equally hard on the woman as it was on them. Pioneers may be picturesque figures, but they are often rather lonely ones. I must say for the House of Commons, they bore their shock with dauntless decency. No body of men could have been kinder and fairer to a “pirate” than they were. When you hear people over here trying to run down England, please remember that England was the first large country to give the vote  to women and that the men of England welcomed an American-born woman in the House with a fairness and a justice which, at least, this woman never will forget....Now, why are we in politics? What is it all about? Something much bigger than ourselves. Schopenhauer was wrong in nearly everything he wrote about women—and he wrote a lot—but he was          right in one thing. He said, in speaking of women, “the race is to her more than the individual,” and I believe that it is true. I feel somehow we do care about the race as a whole, our very nature makes us take a forward vision; there is no reason why women should look back—mercifully we have no political past; we have all the mistakes of sex legislation with its appalling failures to guide us.We should know what to avoid, it is no use blaming the men—we made them what they are—and now it is up to us to try and make ourselves—the makers of men—a little more responsible in the future. We realize that no one sex can govern alone. I believe that one of the reasons why civilization has failed so lamentably is that it has had a one-sided government. Don’t let us make the mistake of ever allowing that to happen again. I can conceive of nothing worse than a  man-governed world except a woman governed world—but I can see the com bination of the two going forward and making civilization more worthy of the name of civilization based on Christianity,not force. A civilization based on justice and mercy. I feel men have a greater sense of justice and we of mercy. They must borrow our mercy and we must use their justice. (We are new brooms); let us see that we sweep the right rooms.