ABSTRACT
The Consultative Committee lasted forty- years, though the advent of the Second World War meant that its last report was the Report on Secondary Education. The greater availability of minutes of the Committee’s subcommittees, modern biographies and writings of and about its women members make it possible to assess more fully their contributions to its deliberations and reports in this period. The Spens papers also show the other women members playing a full part in the Committee’s deliberations and proposals, especially through its several sub-committees, making comments, being asked to draft or re-draft sections, adding passages and closely questioning witnesses. The evidence, however, shows that the women appointed had strong and independent views and did not hesitate to express them. They undoubtedly included a number of suffragists, and women who were active members of political parties across the political divide.
