Division record on hereditary women peers, 1959

Hereditary women peers were still excluded from the Lords after the 1958 Act was passed.  

The proposal to end the discrimination against them "immediately" was debated in the House in January 1959 on a motion put forward by Lord Reading, whose stepmother, Lady Swanborough, had been one of the first four women life peers created the previous year.  

The Government was embarrassed to find itself defeated by 59 votes to 51, despite vociferous opposition by Lord Hailsham. 

However, nothing further was done about hereditary women peers until the 1963 Peerage Act which as well as enabling peers to renounce their titles also for the first time allowed hereditary peeresses to sit in the Upper House.