The first women in the House of Lords took their seats in 1958, forty years after women were granted the right to stand as MPs in the House of Commons. These were life peeresses appointed by the Prime Minister, although countesses had appeared in medieval times.
Female hereditary peers were able to sit in the Lords from 1963. Female Church of England bishops have been sitting as Lords Spiritual since 2015, although abbesses had appeared in mediaeval times.
As of December 2022[update], women make up about 29 per cent of the members of the Lords, which compares with about 35 per cent of the members of the Commons.