Margaret Bondfield, 1929, (1935). Portrait of Margaret Grace Bondfield (1873-1953), British Labour politician, trade unionist and women's rights activist. Bondfield was the first female cabinet minister, and the first woman to be a privy counsellor when she was appointed Minister of Labour in the Labour government of 1929-1931. She was also the first woman to chair the General Council of the Trades Union Congress (TUC). In the General Election of 1929, 'every woman over twenty-one was, for the first time, entitled to make use of her recently acquired privilege of voting, and women's votes greatly outnumbered those of the men'. From "The Silver Jubilee Book - The Story of 25 Eventful Years in Pictures". [Odhams Press Ltd., London, 1935]