Margaret thatcher girl power
Margaret Thatcher dominated my school and student years and had a big impact on my political coming of age, but not in the way she would have welcomed. And for that reason she is still a figure that feminists would be unwise to dismiss.
Girls who grew up when she was running the country were able to imagine leadership as a female quality in a way that girls today struggle to do. But nor should we deny the fact that as the outsider who pushed her way inside, as the woman in a man's world, she was a towering rebuke to those who believe women are unsuited to the pursuit and enjoyment of power. We should never forget her destructive policies or sanitise her corrosive legacy. I knew that then as I know it now by the time I left school I was a veteran of protests that resounded to the chant of Maggie Maggie Maggie Out Out Out. Obviously Thatcher was no feminist: she had no interest in social equality, she knew nothing of female solidarity. It was unacceptable then, as it seems to be now, for feminists to do anything but denounce Thatcher. Nothing I have ever written before or since has brought so much fury on my head. She is the great unsung heroine of British feminism." She showed that although female power and masculine power may have different languages, different metaphors, different gestures, different traditions, different ways of being glamorous or nasty, they are equally strong, equally valid … No one can ever question whether women are capable of single-minded vigour, of efficient leadership, after Margeret Thatcher.
Women who complain that Margaret Thatcher was not a feminist because she didn't help other women or openly acknowledge her debt to feminism have a point, but they are also missing something vital. Someone of the wrong sex and the wrong class broke through what looked like invincible barriers to reach into the heart of the establishment. No British woman this century can come close to her achievements in grasping power. In the general-election campaign of 1979, which brought her to power for the first time, she explained that "any woman who understands the problems of running a home will be nearer to understanding the problems of running the country.Thirteen years ago, in The New Feminism, I wrote: "Let's start with Margaret Thatcher. Owning your own home, setting the household budget, choosing the best school for your child - women were given a new level of political importance and one that has not been lost by subsequent leaders. And I was so sickened by Maggie, so desperate to oust her, that she guaranteed my lifelong passion for politics - the only means of getting rid of the occupant of No 10."īaroness Thatcher would never have regarded herself as a feminist campaigner but she certainly did change and feminise the language of politics. "While Lizzie was a figurehead, Maggie was the real deal. Granted, the head of state was also a woman, but I had no chance (or desire) to grow up to be Queen. "She cleared the path for women (and men) to think that leadership was gender-neutral. Maggie was the only thing in 1980s Britain that made a girl imagine she could grow up to be prime minister. Oona King makes no secret of her anger towards Baroness Thatcher's policies.īut she admits: "Margaret Thatcher was my role model. But it is a tragedy that, having become the UK's first women prime minister, she did so much to undermine the position of women in society." Patricia Hewitt said: "Margaret Thatcher broke through the glass ceiling in politics. Image: The handbag she wore at Camp David in 1985 was sold at a charity auction
Someone of the wrong class and the wrong sex had managed to penetrate the barriers and reach the heart of the political elite.Īfter breaking the mould and finally getting to a position of power, some politicians struggle to forgive her for not doing more for women's rights once she got there.
Then after training as a chemist, she studied part-time as a lawyer while raising two children.īaroness Thatcher then convinced the Conservative selection panel to let her stand as an MP, and in 1975 won the leadership contest. She was the first person in her family to go to university - let alone Oxford. She proved that the daughter of a greengrocer could progress to the nation's highest political position through hard work and determination. There is no doubt, however, that her election did blaze a path for women.Īs a result of Baroness Thatcher's premiership, nobody questions that female politicians can be strong, determined and ruthless when necessary. And she sits uneasily as a feminist trailblazer, famously saying "the battle for women's rights has largely been won" and "I owe nothing to women's lib".