ABSTRACT
Labour’s Women’s Minister, however, had an inauspicious start. Although the Labour Party had been committed to a Ministry for Women from the mid-1980s, by the time of the 1997 general election, the party was offering only a Women’s Minister in the Cabinet.4 And their appointment of the minister was fudged.5 It was only after Harriet Harman was appointed Secretary of State for Social Security that she was recalled to have the Women’s Minister brief added to her portfolio. Then Joan Ruddock was also appointed Women’s Minister (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State). These appointments and the lack of ministerial pay accorded to Ruddock drew adverse criticism. But the post at least seemed to be in two pairs of ‘feminist’ hands. Moreover, Harman was in the Cabinet and it was Joan Ruddock’s only brief.6
