Florence "Jean" May Winder (1909-2006) () was the first woman to hold a permanent post as a parliamentary reporter for ''

Hansard ''Hansard'' is the traditional name of the transcripts of parliamentary debates in Britain and many Commonwealth countries. It is named after Thomas Curson Hansard (1776–1833), a London printer and publisher, who was the first official print ...

'', the official record of debate in the

Houses of Parliament The Palace of Westminster serves as the meeting place for both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Informally known as the Houses of Parliament, the Palace lies on the north bank ...

in the UK. Appointed in 1944, she pushed for equal pay for women reporters and achieved this in 1953. She then became the first woman to make a speech at a Press Gallery dinner. She retired in 1960.

Early life

Florence May Hayward, known as "Jean", was born in

Stockwell Stockwell is a district in south west London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. It is situated south of Charing Cross. Battersea, Brixton, Clapham, South Lambeth, Oval and Kennington all border Stockwell. History The na ...

, London on 23 April 1907. Her parents managed pubs around south London until her father's death in 1913. Hayward trained as a secretary at Hettie Craig-Kelly's secretarial college in Moorgate, London. Craig-Kelly picked Hayward to accompany her on the Royal Commission to the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

with the Moyne Commission in 1938–9. Hayward married Lieutenant Ralph Spearing Winder on 4 October 1940 in London but was widowed when he died on active service in 1941.

Parliamentary career

On 18 January 1944, Florence Winder was appointed as a temporary reporter for the House of Commons' ''Hansard''. The editor, Percy Cole, made it clear he had only appointed a woman as there were no men available. The following year, in November 1945, she was made permanent, with Cole admitting she was a "capable and efficient" reporter. By 1947, he was citing her as an example of good work when giving evidence to a Select Committee.

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...

described her as "a shorthand writer's dream". Her initial salary, in 1944, was £400. After becoming permanent, she was placed on a salary scale of £450-600. The equivalent men's salary was £560-700. From 1951, when she had reached the top of her scale, she campaigned to receive equal pay to the men. She was supported in her campaign by

Douglas Clifton-Brown Douglas Clifton Brown, 1st Viscount Ruffside, (16 August 1879 – 5 May 1958) was a British politician who represented the Conservative Party (UK). He served as Speaker of the House of Commons (United Kingdom), Speaker of the House of Commons fr ...

and

Irene Ward Irene Mary Bewick Ward, Baroness Ward of North Tyneside, (23 February 1895 – 26 April 1980) was a British Conservative Party politician. She was a long-serving female Member of Parliament (MP), the longest serving female Conservative MP in his ...

. The latter raised Winder's case in the House of Commons in a debate on Equal Pay in 1951 as well as writing many letters demanding equal pay. The Treasury, who set the pay scales, finally equalised Winder's pay with the men in 1951. She resigned in 1960, just before remarrying, and there were no further women reporters for ''Hansard'' until 1968.

Later life

On 14 May 1960, Winder married Jack Hawke, the parliamentary correspondent for the ''

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'' and chairman of the Parliamentary Press Gallery. On Hawke's retirement, the couple moved to Devon. Hawke died in 1998, and Winder died of old age on 26 December 2005 in

Dawlish Dawlish is an English seaside resort town and civil parish in Teignbridge on the south coast of Devon, from the county town of Exeter and from the larger resort of Torquay. Its 2011 population of 11,312 was estimated at 13,355 in 2019. It is t ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Winder, Florence Jean British_women_journalists 1909 births 2006 deaths People from Stockwell Journalists from London