The BBC’s flagship news programme has broadcast an all-female edition, including presenters and interviewees, to mark the centenary of the act of parliament which gave some women the vote.

Radio 4’s Today programme was also presented from Westminster Hall in the Houses of Parliament to mark the anniversary.

All the presenters, guests and contributors on Today were women. Even the racing tips included horses trained and ridden by women.

Interviewees included Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s prime minister, Shirley Williams, the former education secretary and one of the founders of the SDP, and the home secretary, Amber Rudd.

Baroness Williams said that when she and 22 other women were elected in 1964, “we were very much seen as kind of decoration ... the assumption was that women were not quite human, but they were quite pleasant to have around”.

Ardern called for greater progress on pay equality and tackling domestic violence.

She said: “I’m constantly mindful that whilst it’s wonderful to be a woman in a leadership position, that shouldn’t mask what I perceive to be the fundamental need to get the basics right. In New Zealand we have a gender pay gap, as many others do. We also have more women in low paid-work and we have high levels of intimate partner violence. So until we have women seeing the benefits of that leadership then there is a lot more to do.”

The all-female programme came as the government faced calls to overturn the convictions of female campaigners jailed for their activities before the implementation of the Representation of the People Act 100 years ago.

Rudd promised to consider the request, but said the issue was more complicated than it appeared. She said: “I must be frank, it is complicated because if you are going to give a legal pardon for things like arson and violence it is not as straightforward as people think it might be, but I’ll certainly look at proposals.”

Asked whether the suffragettes should be pardoned, Williams said: “I don’t think pardoned is the right word. They deserve to be celebrated. Pardoned already means you’ve done something wrong. They hadn’t done anything wrong.”

The Today programme also ran a poll to find the most influential woman of the last 100 years. The 12-strong shortlist included Virginia Woolf, Margaret Thatcher and the Queen.