Betty Lockwood was appointed to the House of Lords in 1978. She has a long history of activism in the Labour and women’s rights movements and is particular interested in sex equality, education, training and industry. Lockwood is currently Chair of the National Coal Mining Museum for England, President of the Yorkshire Arthritis Research Campaign and a member of Soroptimist International, a group working to advance the status of women. She has also been involved in higher education, serving as a member of Bradford University Council (1983-2005) and as President of Birkbeck College (1983-89). Between 1982 and 1983, Lockwood was Chair of the European Advisory Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men, and for eight years prior to that she served as the first chair of the Equal Opportunities Commission. She had proved her commitment to the Commission’s aims with her earlier campaigning for equal pay and work as Women’s Officer of the Labour Party. Lockwood became engaged in Labour politics after studying at the trade union-run Ruskin College, Oxford. She had gained a place there on a scholarship after studying at night school. Lockwood left school at fourteen to begin work. She was born in 1924.