Women, the state and the family in Britain: Thatcher economics and the experience of women

During the 1960s and 1970s both Labour and Conservative governments failed to arrest the decline of the British economy. While the Labour government of 1974-9 struggled to balance their economic policies between the monetarism of the IMF initiative and the ‘Social Contract’ with the unions which had formed their election platform, the right of the Conservative party was debating the ‘Social Market Strategy’ (Gamble, 1982). The election of Mrs Thatcher as leader of the party signalled a shift in the dominant thinking of the party, which was endorsed in the 1979 election manifesto.