Barbara Wootton (1897–1988)

Barbara Adam was born in Cambridge and educated at the Perse School for Girls. Her father was James Adam, a noted classicist. She studied Classics and Economics at Cambridge University. In 1917, she married John Wootton, who died only weeks later fighting in World War I. She later remarried to George Wright. During the 1930s, she was an active member of the Federal Union, a pro-Europe group. In 1948 she became a professor at Bedford College of the University of London. She wrote several books on economics, sociology, and crime, including End Social Inequality (1941), Freedom Under Planning (1945), Social Science and Social Pathology (1959), Crime and the Criminal Law (1964) and Incomes Policy (1974). She was created Baroness Wootton of Abinger in 1958 and became the first woman to serve as Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords. She was the chairperson of the Wootton Report on marijuana, published in 1969. The same year, she was made an Honorary Fellow of her alma mater, Girton College. She was awarded the Order of the Companions of Honour in 1977. Baroness Wootton was featured in the BBC 2 series "Women of Our Century" in 1984.