House of Ladies, 1st of 3 (14min)

The political journalist Julia Langdon has reported on events upstairs and downstairs in bother Houses of the Place of Westminster for 35 years. She has watched women parliamentarians with admiration -- but without envy -- throughout that time.

For a Sunday Supplement series first broadcast in August 2005 she discusses the changes that she has seen brought about by the introduction of female working peers into the House of Lords -- from trailblazers and mould-breakers to those who have moved House from the Commons.

It's been called the Mother of Parliament, but for most of its history it has been a male-only club. Women were only allowed to take seats in the Commons after the First World War. The Lords remained barred to women until the late 1950s.

In the first part of the House of Ladies, she describes how female peers changed the Upper Chamber with the help of some of the very first women to get through its doors.