Ringside seat? Women's modes of entry to the early 19th‐century parliament

Abstract In 1788, women were explicitly excluded as visitors to the house of commons. From the 1810s, small numbers sought to return to the ventilator, a cramped attic above the chamber used by women to view proceedings below. Other women entered not by choice, but as litigants or witnesses to committees including for divorce bills. These were not the only means of female access to parliament, but provide two useful case studies of entry which remain largely unstudied by historians of gender and sexuality. This article uses new evidence from the ventilator and from divorce bills to extend existing analysis of women's parliamentary presence in the first half of the 19th century. As well as exploring the physical experience of attending the space, it examines how women were treated at the hands of the MPs and peers adjudicating their divorces, especially where this intersects with gender and sexuality. The approach is a holistic examination of relevant parliamentary documents, and how this supports or challenges the existing secondary literature about divorce bills. The article argues that women's bodily presence, as both visitors and witnesses, was tolerated within the institution but often on the basis of their emotional and physical discomfort. Women were prepared to endure this discomfort to enter the space so that, paradoxically, measures that were intended to keep them at arms’ length allowed them to create openings which helped lead to greater future parliamentary access during the 19th century.