263 women were elected to Parliament on 4 July 2024 – the highest number ever.

This Insight compares the number of women MPs elected in 2024 with earlier election results and looks at the history of female representation in the UK Parliament.

Record number of women elected in 2024

The 2024 general election returned the highest number and proportion of female MPs ever recorded: 263 (40%) of 650 MPs are women, up from 220 in 2019 (+43). This continues the trend of increasing female representation in Parliament, as shown in the chart below.

Numbers of female MPs by party in the last four general elections. 2024: Lab 190, Con 29, Lib Dem 32, SNP 1, Other 11. 2019: Lab 104, Con 87, Lib Dem 7, SNP 16, Other 6. 2017: Lab 119, Con 67, Lib Dem 4, SNP 12, Other 6. 2015: Lab 99, Con 68, SNP 20, Other 4.

129 (40%) of the 322 MPs elected for the first time in 2024 were women. Of these, 31% of new Conservative MPs were women; 41% of new Labour MPs and 38% of new Liberal Democrat MPs.

Ten of the 15 (61%) former MPs, who had been elected before but not in the 2019 Parliament, were women.

How has the number of women in Parliament changed over time?

The Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act 1918 allowed women aged 21 and over to stand for Parliament for the first time.

Constance Markievicz became the first woman to be elected as an MP at the 1918 general election but, along with 72 other Sinn Féin MPs, she did not take her seat in the Commons.

Nancy Astor, elected in a 1919 by-election, became the first woman to sit in the House of Commons.

Up to 1987 the number of women MPs elected never went over 30, even though there had been a female Prime Minister.

The number of women in the House of Commons since 1918 is shown in the chart below.

Notes
1. Includes Coalition Conservative for 1918; National, National Liberal and National Labour for 1931-35; National and National Liberal for 1945; National Liberal & Conservative for 1945-70.
2. Includes Coalition Liberal Party for 1918; National Liberal for 1922; Independent Liberal for 1931; Liberal/SDP Alliance for 1983-87; Liberal Democrats from 1922.
3. Figures for all Ireland, not just Northern Ireland.
Sources: Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher, British Electoral Facts 1832-2006; House of Commons Library, General Election 2015: full results and analysis; House of Commons Library, General Election 2017: full results and analysis

There were 19 female MPs elected in 1979, when the UK elected the first female Prime Minister, 3% of the total. The number of female MPs rose slowly over the next three parliaments to 60 in 1992.

The proportion of seats held by women doubled in 1997, when 120 women were elected (60 had been elected in 1992). This was the first time women held more than 10% of seats (18% of all MPs).

That number fell back to 118 at the 2001 election but has risen at each subsequent general election.

220 female MPs were elected at the 2019 general election (34% of all MPs). By May 2024, when the House dissolved for the 2024 general election, there were 226 female MPs.

Which parties do the current female MPs belong to?

Of the current 263 female MPs:

  • 190 represent Labour (46%, up from 40% in 2019)
  • 32 represent the Liberal Democrats (44%, down from 58% in 2019)
  • 29 represent the Conservatives (24% of all Conservative MPs, down from 27% in 2019)
  • 12 represent other parties.

Including those elected in 2024, a total of 693 women have been elected to the House of Commons since 1918.

Further Reading

For the full datasets with results of the 2024 general election, as well as all general elections back to 2010, see the Commons Library’s election results website.

For more on women in Parliament, see:

About the author: Grahame Allen is a statistics researcher in the Social and General Statistics section of the Commons Library.

Image credit: UK Parliament on Flickr

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