Margaret Bondfield became the first woman MP when she won the 1923 election as a Labour MP for Northampton. In 1924 the Prime Minister Ramsay McDonald appointed Bondfield as the parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Labour.

Then in 1929 she became Minister of Labour herself. So Bondfield became the first woman to gain a place in the British Cabinet, setting an example for many women aspiring to politics.

She upset other Labour Party members by supporting McDonald's proposal to stop married women receiving unemployment benefit during the financial crisis, and she lost her seat in the general election of 1931. Margaret Bondfield continued her interest in social issues and public welfare until her death in 1953.