Fifty years of life peers

International affairs expert Baroness Williams's lecture will be broadcast on BBC Parliament

BBC Parliament is televising a series of lectures by female peers to mark the 50th anniversary of the Life Peerages Act 1958.

The Act admitted life peers to the House of Lords enabling them to sit alongside those who had inherited their titles.

The Lord Speaker, Baroness Hayman, said the lectures were a tribute to the achievements of female peers.

She said: "The 1958 Act reinvigorated the House, turning what had been a declining institution into an active second chamber."

Lib Dem peer Baroness Williams of Crosby gives the second lecture in the series, on international affairs.

Watch the lecture on BBC Parliament's Briefings programme on Saturday from 2100 GMT.

Baroness Williams is co-president of the Royal Institute of International Affairs. As Shirley Williams, was a founding member of the SDP.

Future lectures will be given by Baroness Young of Hornsey, Baroness James of Holland Park (the crime writer PD James) and Baroness Jay of Paddington.

The Lord Speaker gave the first lecture, on the impact the Life Peerages Act had on the House.