ABSTRACT
These years saw Margaret Thatcher in her pomp. She achieved absolute dominance within the Conservative Party, which she proceeded to transform (see Chapter 4). Her Cabinet reshuffles in this period were designed to consolidate that dominance. Only those she believed to be true believers of her version of politics were promoted to the highest offices, certainly those concerned with the economy. It is said that the key criterion for promotion from the ranks of the back-benchers was the answer to the simple question: ʻIs he one of us?ʼ. The gendered question was doubtlessly unintentional, but significant nonetheless. The first woman Prime Minister did little to advance the political cause of women. Minimal progress was made during the 1980s. Thatcher did appoint Emma Nicholson, a posh and plummy-voiced left-winger who later defected to the Liberals, as vice-chairman of the party, charged with advancing the cause of women. Actual advances oscillated between snail-like and imperceptible. Thatcher opposed Nicholsonʼs suggestion that women should be taxed independently. At the 1983 general election, women Conservative MPs numbered thirteen. In 1987, only forty-six of the 633 Conservative candidates (7.3 per cent) were women. This paltry proportion – considerably lower than Labourʼs (14.6 per cent) and that of the Liberal/SDP alliance (16.6 per cent) – was nevertheless larger than ever before. However, only seventeen female Conservative candidates were actually elected. Thus, only 4.5 per cent of the parliamentary party that supported Thatcherʼs last government were women.1 Nicholson was bitter: ʻHad the Conservative Party really wanted it, the pattern could have been changed. The Conservative Party is . . . an army led from the topʼ.2
