The Baroness Summerskill | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Minister of National Insurance | |
| In office 28 February 1950 – 26 October 1951 | |
| Prime Minister | Clement Attlee |
| Preceded by | James Griffiths |
| Succeeded by | Osbert Peake |
| Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food | |
| In office 4 August 1945 – 28 February 1950 | |
| Prime Minister | Clement Attlee |
| Preceded by | Florence Horsbrugh |
| Succeeded by | Stanley Evans |
| Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal | |
| In office 4 February 1961 – 4 February 1980 Life peerage | |
| Member of Parliament forWarrington | |
| In office 26 May 1955 – 4 February 1961 | |
| Preceded by | Hyacinth Morgan |
| Succeeded by | Thomas Williams |
| Member of Parliament forFulham West | |
| In office 6 April 1938 – 6 May 1955 | |
| Preceded by | Cyril Cobb |
| Succeeded by | Constituency Abolished |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1901-04-19)19 April 1901 |
| Died | 4 February 1980(1980-02-04) (aged 78) |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Labour |
| Spouse | Dr Jeffrey Samuel |
| Children | Shirley Summerskill |
| Alma mater | King's College London Charing Cross Hospital Medical School |
Edith Clara Summerskill, Baroness Summerskill,CH, PC (19 April 1901 – 4 February 1980) was a British physician, feminist,Labour politician and writer. She was appointed to thePrivy Council in 1949.
Summerskill attendedEltham Hill Grammar School.[1] She then went toKing's College London, and was admitted to medical school atCharing Cross Hospital Medical School, one of the earliest women to be admitted to medical school.
She was one of the founders of theSocialist Health Association, which spearheaded theNational Health Service (1948). She pressed for equal rights for women in theBritish Home Guard. In 1938, she was involved with theMarried Women's Association to promote equality in marriage. It was formed as a splinter group that was created withJuanita Frances as its first chair.[2] Summerskill became its first president.[citation needed]
Summerskill entered politics at 32 when she was asked to fight the Green Lanes ward inHarringay in the Middlesex County Council elections.[3] She then served as a councillor onMiddlesexCounty Council from 1934 until 1941. She stood for a seat in theHouse of Commons unsuccessfully at thePutney byelection in 1934 andBury at the1935 general election, before becoming LabourMember of Parliament (MP) forFulham West ata by-election in 1938 thanks to the working women's vote. She caused some disquiet by taking the seat in her maiden name. When the Fulham West constituency was abolished for the1955 general election, she was returned to theHouse of Commons as MP forWarrington. She had a London flat inEnnismore Gardens.[4]
Summerskill was included inClement Attlee's Labour government following the election victory in 1945. She served as aParliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Food, and was later promoted to theMinistry of Social and National Insurance, heading the department she was profiled as the Minister of National Insurance, however she was not a cabinet minister.
As well as her service in government, Summerskill also served on the House of CommonsPolitical Honours Scrutiny Committee from 1967 to 1976.
Summerskill served asParliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food (1945–50) and as Minister ofNational Insurance (1950–51). She was a member of the Labour Party'sNational Executive Committee from 1944 to 1958 and served as Chair of the Labour Party 1954–5). She left the House of Commons in 1961 and was created alife peer asBaroness Summerskill,ofKen Wood in theCounty of London on 4 February 1961.[5] Furthermore, she was awarded an additional honour, being initiated into theOrder of the Companions of Honour (CH) in 1966.[6]
Summerskill appears in a specially selected list ofFabian Society members from 1942 to 1947, showing continuity and prestige. An active feminist, she was instrumental in promoting women's causes throughout that period, starting with the Clean Milk Act in 1949. She was an early advocate forequal pay and supported theEqual Pay Campaign Committee in their cross-party efforts. In 1954 she joinedPatricia Ford,Irene Ward andBarbara Castle to submit the 'Equal Pay in the public services' petition, with over 80,000 signatures, to Parliament. The four policiticians arrived together in a horse drawn carriage decorated in suffragette colours.[7]
Later, as the president of the Married Women's Association, she campaigned in and outside the parliament to assure the equal rights of housewives and of divorced women, which resulted in the Married Women's Properties Act in 1964 and the Matrimonial Homes Act in 1967.
During the 1950s, Summerskill wrote a series of letters to her daughterShirley, who, like her mother, was an active feminist. Shirley studied medicine in Oxford at that time and later became a doctor and a Member of Parliament and of Cabinet. Edith Summerskill's letters to Shirley were collected and published in a bookLetters to My Daughter (1957). Summerskill outlines her belief that women are superior to men in almost every way. In support of such a theory Summerskill presents three "facts": firstly, that only women can enjoy two worlds of creative enterprise, thebiological and theintellectual. Secondly, she suggests women are physically stronger, live longer, and are constitutionally tougher, having greaterstamina. Finally, she believes women have equal if not greaterintellect than men.[8]
Although Summerskill's book contains only Edith's letters to her daughter, the mother's response to questions raised by the daughter creates a sense of an ongoing dialogue between the two, concerning issues of education for women, equality and achievements. In reply to Shirley's question about the part that married women are playing in the affairs of the country, her mother writes:
The insistent demand of women for recognition in spheres of work outside the home, which has quietly but unremittingly been advanced in the course of the last hundred years, has grudgingly been conceded. As a doctor and a Member of Parliament I am fully conscious of the fact that the doors both of the medical schools and of the House of Commons had to be forced by furious and frustrated women before their claims were recognized. It would be quite inaccurate to suggest that we were welcomed into the universities or into public life. (143)
Summerskill constantly struggles for and raises consciousness about women's equal rights. In response to Shirley's complaint about "the stock question" of the anti-feminists, "Why have not more women achieved eminence in the arts and sciences?" She answers: "Personally I am astounded that so many have distinguished themselves despite the conditions which society has imposed upon them" (181). Summerskill maintains that in spite of the difficulties and prejudices, women are making progress and have achievements in music, visual art, and literature as well as some advancement in science and technology (181). Yet Summerskill's conclusion in 1956 is similar to the oneVirginia Woolf reached twenty-five years earlier.[improper synthesis?] Woolf writes that even when all the outward obstacles are overcome, she, or any other a woman, has not solved the problem of "my own experiences as a body" (1942: 206); Summerskill makes the parallel concession that for a woman, the "most powerful force, which takes her off the course" is the "biological urge to have a family" (187).
Summerskill was married in 1925 to Dr Jeffrey Samuel. Their children took their mother's surname. Her daughter,Shirley Summerskill, also served as a physician, member of parliament and government minister. Her grandsonBen Summerskill became chief executive of the British gay equality charityStonewall in 2003.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
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| Preceded by SirCyril Cobb | Member of Parliament forFulham West 1938–1955 | constituency abolished |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forWarrington 1955–1961 | Succeeded by |
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| Preceded by | Minister of National Insurance 1950–1951 | Succeeded by |
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| Preceded by | Chair of the Labour Party 1954–1955 | Succeeded by |
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