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Public Speaking & Talks

Background © Parliamentary Archives, HC/CL/JO/1/5

I love speaking on the history of women, Parliament and archives.

I'm very experienced in delivering talks to a wide range of audiences on topics including women's suffrage in Parliament, women MPs, and women and the Lords.

I've talked about Necessary Women: the Untold Story of Parliament's Working Women to lots of different groups including Archives for London, London Historians and the Farnham Literary Festival. There are such wonderful human-interest stories, something for everyone. 

Mari Takayanagi historian and speaker

Other public speaking highlights include my TedX talk, and giving papers at conferences in New York, Vancouver, Naples, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin. And I was honoured to give the annual J H Whitley public lecture at the University of Huddersfield in 2024, on 'Breaking the chains: Women’s Suffrage & Parliament'.

Would you like me to speak to your group?

Get in touch
A wrinkled vintage banner with bold black text advocating for women's voting rights, featuring the words 'Proclamation' and 'Votes for Women.'

© Parliamentary Archives HC/SA/SJ/3/1

Speaking engagements

Upcoming Talks

  • "In the Royal Gallery we have an exhibition of historic documents relating to the suffrage movement. It is a tribute to our parliamentary archivist Mari Takayanagi and to Melanie Unwin from the works of art office that we have had these documents recognised by UNESCO as being of national importance. On Tuesday, they organised a suffragette walk through Parliament. One of the most moving sights for me was the windows in St Stephen’s Hall illustrating the history of suffrage, including portrayals of chains, force-feeding, and the “cat and mouse” Act."

    — Baroness Massey of Darwen, Hansard 1 March 2012

  • "This week, as part of a whole host of International Women’s Day celebrations, we heard from the parliamentary archivist, Mari Takayanagi, about the remarkable contributions of early women MPs and the huge impact they had on law-making—how they spoke out 100 years ago in this place about the most sensitive of crimes against women, like FGM."

    — Maria Miller MP, Hansard, 11 March 2021

Rep of People Act 1918

© Parliamentary Archives, HL/PO/PU/1/1918/7&8G5c64

Speaking engagements

Recent Talks

  • ‘The Speakers and the Suffragettes’, Parliaments, Politics and People seminar, Institute of Historical Research, London, and hybrid via Zoom, 28 October 2025

  • 'Necessary Women; The Untold History of Parliament’s Working Women', public talk at Gladstone Library, Hawarden, Flintshire,  9 October 2025

  • ‘The first women library and archive staff in the UK Parliament, 1945-1960’, Women’s History Network conference, 5 September 2025 

  • 'From 2018 to 2028: anniversaries, commemoration and parliament', conference paper for Political History in Britain Today panel, British History Today conference, Queen Mary University of London, 2 May 2025

  • 'The Peerage Act 1963: extending the hereditary principle', conference paper for The Benn Legacy Conference, University of Westminster, 12 April 2025