My Two Countries

The first woman to take her seat in the British Parliament was not born in Britain at all. Nancy Astor, born in Virginia to an American railroad dynasty and married into British aristocracy, occupied a space between two nations that never quite fit either category. My Two Countries gathers her speeches and reflections from the 1920s, revealing a figure as provocative as she was pioneering. Her wit cuts both ways: she could champion women's participation in politics while simultaneously questioning whether women should actually govern, declaring she could 'conceive of nothing worse than a man-governed world except a woman governed world.' Astor advocated for child welfare and workers' rights yet held views on race and class that reflected her privileged transatlantic position. These speeches capture a woman negotiating her own unprecedented path, wrestling publicly with questions that had no ready answers. For readers interested in early feminism's messy reality, in the history of women in politics, or in the particular burden of being 'first,' these speeches remain essential. They document not triumph but struggle, the unglamorous work of actually being the woman in the room.