Christine Crawley, Baroness Crawley
Christine Mary Crawley, Baroness Crawley FRSA (born 9 January 1950) is a British politician for the Labour Party.
[edit] Early life and career
Crawley was educated at the Notre Dame Roman Catholic Girls' School in Birmingham before going to Digby Stuart College to train as a teacher.[1] After graduation she began teaching children aged between 9 and 15, and also ran the local youth theatre.[2] Her work to gain funding for the youth theatre brought her into contact with local politicians, and she became involved in politics, joining the Labour Party.[2] Soon after joining the party she became secretary of the local branch, and then Social Secretary for the local Women's Branch.[2] She was elected as a District Councillor for the South Oxfordshire District Council, at a time when the Labour Party was a minority party on the council.[2]
In 1983 she ran for a seat in the House of Commons but was not elected, instead spending a year working on local issues before she was elected as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Birmingham East constituency).[2] As an MEP Crawley was active on the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality and helped push their Maternity Leave Directive through, becoming Chair of that committee in 1989.[3] She stepped down as an MEP in 1999, and is now a member of the West Midlands Regional Assembly and a sponsor of the National Women's Network.[3] She was Chair of the Women's National Commission between 1999 and 2001, and in 1998 was created Baroness Crawley, of Edgbaston in the County of West Midlands.[4] Between 2002 and 2008 she served as a Party Whip in the House of Lords.
[edit] References
- ^ "ThePeerage.com - Person Page 19117". ThePeerage.com. 22 June 2008. http://www.thepeerage.com/p19117.htm. Retrieved 2009-05-02.
- ^ a b c d e "Women in Decision-making - Interview - Crawley". European Database - Women in Decision-making. http://www.db-decision.de/Interviews/Uk/Crawley.htm. Retrieved 2009-05-02.
- ^ a b "List of patrons - Baroness Crawley". National Women's Network. http://www.national-womens-network.co.uk/bio/bio2.html. Retrieved 2009-05-02.[dead link]
- ^ London Gazette: no. 55210. p. 8287. 30 July 1998. Retrieved 5 May 2009.
[edit] External links
- 1950 births
- Councillors in Oxfordshire
- Labour Party (UK) Baronesses- and Lords-in-Waiting
- Labour Party (UK) life peers
- Female life peers
- Labour Party (UK) MEPs
- Members of the European Parliament for English constituencies
- MEPs for the United Kingdom 1984–1989
- MEPs for the United Kingdom 1989–1994
- MEPs for the United Kingdom 1994–1999
- Living people
- People from Birmingham, West Midlands