Angela Margaret Mason (born 9 August 1944) is a British civil servant and activist, and a former director of the UK-based

lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is ...

lobbying organisation

Stonewall Stonewall or Stone wall may refer to: * Stone wall, a kind of masonry construction * Stonewalling, engaging in uncooperative or delaying tactics * Stonewall riots, a 1969 turning point for the modern LGBTQ rights movement in Greenwich Village, Ne ...

. She is a former Chair of the

Fawcett Society The Fawcett Society is a membership charity in the United Kingdom which campaigns for women's rights. The organisation dates back to 1866, when Millicent Garrett Fawcett dedicated her life to the peaceful campaign for women's suffrage. Originall ...

, a UK women's rights campaigning organisation and a Labour Party councillor in Camden.

Early life

Born Angela Margaret Weir in

High Wycombe High Wycombe, often referred to as Wycombe ( ), is a market town in Buckinghamshire, England. Lying in the valley of the River Wye surrounded by the Chiltern Hills, it is west-northwest of Charing Cross in London, south-southeast of Ayl ...

in Buckinghamshire, she grew up on the

Isle of Sheppey The Isle of Sheppey is an island off the northern coast of Kent, England, neighbouring the Thames Estuary, centred from central London. It has an area of . The island forms part of the local government district of Swale. ''Sheppey'' is derived ...

and was educated at Basingstoke High School,

Bedford College, University of London Bedford College was in York Place after 1874 Bedford College was founded in London in 1849 as the first higher education college for women in the United Kingdom. In 1900, it became a constituent of the University of London. Having played a lead ...

, and the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

. She was an early member of the

Gay Liberation Front Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was the name of several gay liberation groups, the first of which was formed in New York City in 1969, immediately after the Stonewall riots. Similar organizations also formed in the UK and Canada. The GLF provided a ...

in the UK.

Terrorism charges

She was one of the Stoke Newington Eight, who in 1972 were charged with planting or sending bombs which aimed to maim or kill government Ministers, their families and

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

officials. She was one of the four accused who was acquitted following a long and still controversial trial. Mason still refuses to discuss the trial in interviews today. Mason was an activist in the trade union and radical movements.

Career after Angry Brigade

Mason became a lecturer at the LSE then the Principal Solicitor for the

London Borough of Camden The London Borough of Camden () is a London borough in Inner London. Camden Town Hall, on Euston Road, lies north of Charing Cross. The borough was established on 1 April 1965 from the area of the former boroughs of Hampstead, Holborn, and St ...

. She became a member of gay rights organisation

in 1989, becoming its director in 1992.

In government

From 2003 to 2007, she was the director of the UK government's Women and Equality Unit, now the

Government Equalities Office The Government Equalities Office (GEO) is the unit of the British government with responsibility for social equality. The office has lead responsibility for gender equality within the UK government, together with a responsibility to provide advic ...

, with her high salary attracting media attention. Mason has also been a member of the Equal Opportunities Commission and an advisor to the

Mayor of London The mayor of London is the chief executive of the Greater London Authority. The role was created in 2000 after the 1998 Greater London Authority referendum, Greater London devolution referendum in 1998, and was the first Directly elected may ...

Ken Livingstone Kenneth Robert Livingstone (born 17 June 1945) is an English politician who served as the Leader of the Greater London Council (GLC) from 1981 until the council was abolished in 1986, and as Mayor of London from the creation of the office i ...

. Controversially she used her position as a senior civil servant to oppose one measure of legislative equality for gay people – protections against discrimination in the delivery of public and commercial services – in 2005 and 2006. She was, however, unsuccessful and the measure was passed in the

Equality Act 2006 The Equality Act 2006 (c 3) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom covering the United Kingdom. The 2006 Act is a precursor to the Equality Act 2010, which combines all of the equality enactments within Great Britain and provide comp ...

. She was awarded the OBE in 1999 and promoted to CBE in 2007. Since 2007 she has been an advisor to IDeA, a government

quango A quango or QUANGO (less often QuANGO or QANGO) is an organisation to which a government has devolved power, but which is still partly controlled and/or financed by government bodies. The term was originally a shortening of "quasi-NGO", where NG ...

which provides guidelines and regulations for all local authorities in England on equality issues. She was also appointed as Chair of the feminist group the

in the same year. In 2010, she was elected as a

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

councillor to

Camden London Borough Council Camden London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Camden in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. Camden is divided into 18 wards, each electing th ...

; she represented the borough's Cantelowes ward. She served as Deputy Leader of the borough council, and cabinet member for sustainability but was dismissed from the roles in May 2011. She was, however, reappointed to the Council's Cabinet the following year, and was Cabinet Member for Children until her retirement from the council in 2022.

Personal life

Mason married scriptwriter William Mason in 1971, they divorced in 1980 with Mason retaining her married surname. She is in a

Civil Partnership A civil union (also known as a civil partnership) is a legally recognized arrangement similar to marriage, created primarily as a means to provide recognition in law for same-sex couples. Civil unions grant some or all of the rights of marriage ...

with

Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

academic Elizabeth Wilson and has a daughter who was conceived by

artificial insemination Artificial insemination is the deliberate introduction of sperm into a female's cervix or uterine cavity for the purpose of achieving a pregnancy through in vivo fertilization by means other than sexual intercourse. It is a fertility treatme ...

Later life

* The archives of Angela Mason and Elizabeth Wilson are held at The

Women's Library The Women's Library is England's main library and museum resource on women and the women's movement, concentrating on Britain in the 19th and 20th centuries. It has an institutional history as a coherent collection dating back to the mid-1920s, ...

at th
Library of the London School of Economics
re
7EAW

References

External links

* The Women's Library at th
Library of the London School of Economics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mason, Angela 1944 births British civil servants LGBT rights activists from the United Kingdom Living people LGBT businesspeople from the United Kingdom Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Alumni of Bedford College, London Alumni of the London School of Economics Councillors in the London Borough of Camden Gay Liberation Front members Labour Party (UK) councillors People from High Wycombe Honorary Fellows of the London School of Economics LGBT politicians from England 21st-century LGBT people Women councillors in England