Angela Margaret Mason (born 9 August 1944) is a British civil servant and activist, and a former director of the UK-based lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender lobbying organisation Stonewall. She is a former Chair of the

Fawcett Society The Fawcett Society is a membership charity in the United Kingdom which campaigns for women's rights. The organisation dates back to 1866, when Millicent Garrett Fawcett dedicated her life to the peaceful campaign for women's suffrage. From 190 ...

, a UK women's rights campaigning organisation and a Labour Party councillor in Camden.

Early life

Born Angela Margaret Weir in

High Wycombe High Wycombe, often referred to as Wycombe ( ), is a market town in Buckinghamshire, England. Lying in the valley of the River Wye, Buckinghamshire, River Wye surrounded by the Chiltern Hills, it is west-northwest of Charing Cross in London, ...

in Buckinghamshire, she grew up on the

Isle of Sheppey The Isle of Sheppey is an island off the northern coast of Kent, England, neighbouring the Thames Estuary, centred from central London. It has an area of . The island forms part of the districts of England, local government district of Borough ...

and was educated at Basingstoke High School,

Bedford College, University of London Bedford College was founded in London in 1849 as the first higher education college for education of women, women in the United Kingdom. In 1900, it became a constituent of the University of London. Having played a leading role in the advanceme ...

, and the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

. She was an early member of the Gay Liberation Front in the UK.

Terrorism charges

She was one of the Stoke Newington Eight, who in 1972 were charged with planting or sending bombs which aimed to maim or kill government Ministers, their families and Conservative Party officials. She was one of the four accused who was acquitted following a long and still controversial trial. Mason still refuses to discuss the trial in interviews Mason was an activist in the trade union and radical movements.

Career after Angry Brigade

Mason became a lecturer at the LSE then the Principal Solicitor for the

London Borough of Camden The London Borough of Camden () is a London boroughs, borough in Inner London, England. Camden Town Hall, on Euston Road, lies north of Charing Cross. The borough was established on 1 April 1965 from the former Metropolitan boroughs of the Cou ...

. She became a member of gay rights organisation Stonewall in 1989, becoming its director in 1992.

In government

From 2003 to 2007, she was the director of the UK government's Women and Equality Unit, now the

Government Equalities Office The Office for Equality and Opportunity (OEO, formerly known as the Government Equalities Office) is the unit of the British government with responsibility for social equality. Based in the Cabinet Office, it is led by the Minister for Women a ...

, with her high salary attracting media attention. Mason has also been a member of the Equal Opportunities Commission and an advisor to the

Mayor of London The mayor of London is the chief executive of the Greater London Authority. The role was created in 2000 after the Greater London devolution referendum in 1998, and was the first directly elected mayor in the United Kingdom. The current ...

Ken Livingstone Kenneth Robert Livingstone (born 17 June 1945) is an English former politician who served as the Leader of the Greater London Council (GLC) from 1981 until the council was Local Government Act 1985, abolished in 1986, and as Mayor of Londo ...

. Controversially she used her position as a senior civil servant to oppose one measure of legislative equality for gay people – protections against discrimination in the delivery of public and commercial services – in 2005 and 2006. She was, however, unsuccessful and the measure was passed in the Equality Act 2006. She was awarded the OBE in 1999 and promoted to CBE in 2007. Since 2007, she has been an advisor to IDeA, a government quango which provides guidelines and regulations for all local authorities in England on equality issues. She was also appointed as chair of the feminist group the

in the same year serving until 2013. In 2010, she was elected as a Labour councillor to

Camden London Borough Council Camden London Borough Council, also known as Camden Council, legally The Mayor and Burgesses of the London Borough of Camden, is the local authority for the London Borough of Camden in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one o ...

; she represented the borough's Cantelowes ward. She served as Deputy Leader of the borough council, and cabinet member for sustainability but was dismissed from the roles in May 2011. She was, however, reappointed to the council's Cabinet the following year, and was Cabinet Member for Children until her retirement from the council in 2022.

Personal life

Mason married scriptwriter William Mason in 1971, they divorced in 1980 with Mason retaining her married surname. She is in a

Civil Partnership A civil union (also known as a civil partnership) is a legally recognized arrangement similar to marriage, primarily created to provide legal recognition for same-sex couples. Civil unions grant some or all of the rights of marriage, with ch ...

with

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

academic Elizabeth Wilson and has a daughter who was conceived by

artificial insemination Artificial insemination is the deliberate introduction of sperm into a female's cervix or uterine cavity for the purpose of achieving a pregnancy through in vivo fertilization by means other than sexual intercourse. It is a fertility treatment ...

Later life

* The archives of Angela Mason and Elizabeth Wilson are held at The

Women's Library The Women's Library is England's main library and museum resource on women and the women's movement, concentrating on Britain in the 19th and 20th centuries. It has an institutional history as a coherent collection dating back to the mid-1920s, ...

at th
Library of the London School of Economics
re
7EAW

References

External links

* The Women's Library at th
Library of the London School of Economics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mason, Angela 1944 births 21st-century British civil servants English LGBTQ rights activists Living people English LGBTQ businesspeople Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Alumni of Bedford College, London Alumni of the London School of Economics Councillors in the London Borough of Camden Gay Liberation Front members Labour Party (UK) councillors People from High Wycombe Honorary Fellows of the London School of Economics English LGBTQ politicians 21st-century English businesswomen 21st-century English businesspeople 21st-century English LGBTQ people Women councillors in England