Thatcher has been often been harshly criticised by some for doing little to further the role of other women in British politics. During her premiership she employed only one woman in her cabinet, Janet Young who for just two years was leader of the House of Lords. Unlike other female leaders such as Brundtland, Thatcher did not believe that quota systems were the answer to get more women in politics, instead she believed it would only affect the quality of women who reached the top level of politics "I don't want get to a position when we have women because they're women, we want to have women because they are able and as well equipped as men and sometimes better."[1] Thatcher had realised quickly when she entered politics that to achieve her dreams it would take hard work and determination on her part to break down the old boys club mentality that still existed in the Houses of Parliament, "Show them we're better than they are" [2], she once told Labour MP Shirley Williams. Thatcher's struggle to reach the top and the obstacles she overcame along the way greatly influenced her view that achievement should be based on merit alone and not on gender.
Thatcher told delegates at a conference after she had won the Conservative leadership "Our party is the party of equality and opportunity - as you can see." Thatcher was using herself as a symbol of the living embodiment of what she had come to believe; "I think it depends on who the person is. I don't think it depends on so much whether it's a man or a woman as to whether that person is the right person for the job at that time." [3]
Thatcher formed these views due to the struggles she had herself faced since she had first started her career in politics. Thatcher did not see her winning the Conservative leadership or the 1979 General election as being because she was a woman but because she believed she was the best person for the job "I knew the prejudices against women in the top job and I think we look too much at women and men in jobs...you come to a certain time and you look at the personalities available and their policies. And that's how women get on - right personality, right capability, and right place at the right time." [4]
Thatcher adopted a similar attitude regarding class. From the time she won the Conservative leadership Thatcher was looked down upon by many of the upper class grandees of the party, who behind her back called her Hilda, her middle name which they deemed working class [5].
Unable to depend on the traditional supporters of the Conservative leadership, Thatcher was forced to use her charisma to gain support and loyalty. She exercised strict party discipline to limit opposition and used her extensive powers as Prime Minister to give herself enormous influence over the policy making process, therefore making up for the opposition she herself faced within her own party. Furthermore Thatcher turned her deemed flaws into powerful assets. She found her gender to be a powerful way of limiting dissention and asserting her domination on the Conservative party. Many of the older Conservative MP’s admitted they found the fact that Thatcher was a woman made it far more difficult for them to disagree with her than if she had been a man in the same position, this suited Thatcher’s powerful and domineering personality fine and she utilised it to maximum potential.
Thatcher's favouring of a policy of merit over class or gender undoubtedly influenced by her own experiences can be seen throughout her massive over haul of the civil service. The civil service had long become renowned as a haven for privately educated, Oxbridge middle class white men. Among the numerous changes to the service, Thatcher ordered a policy of making appointments to posts within in the civil service based purely on ability as opposed to background and gender. Hugh Stephenson argued "The arrival of Margaret Thatcher's government in the corridors of Whitehall in May 1979 was the biggest jolt that the Civil Service had experienced in living memory. It was a culture shock. The elite administrative grade of the Civil Service in Whitehall has come to think of itself as the guardian and trustee of national continuity...The Prime Minister and a small group of sympathetic ministers...were arguing that its ideas and advice had proved bankrupt, that now was the time for an entirely new approach..." [6]
Thatcher charged Sir Ian Bancroft with the task of de-privileging the Civil Service, which Thatcher personally kept a close eye over. Thatcher's government also saw massive changes to the way the civil service worked promoting the idea of efficiency, initiative and self-improvement within the service. Hennessy noted the reaction of one rising civil servant to the changes within the service following Thatcher's election "It was exhilarating...you knew you had an opportunity to show that the Civil Service could improve itself...You were asked to write a report. It would have your name on it. It would go in front of the Minister with your name on it..." [7]
The difficulties Margaret Thatcher herself faced as a rising politician, leader of the opposition and finally as Prime Minister directly affected her policy while in power of reforming the Conservative party and historical institutions such as the civil service to adapt to the challenges that she herself had faced on her rise to power.
Unlike the present current political climate which promotes the idea of positive discrimination, Margaret Thatcher supported the idea that advancement should be based on ability, not gender or class. She had achieved her dream overcoming extreme opposition through hard work and skilled manipulation of awkward situations, she expected others to do so also.
[1] #
[2] The Daily Mail, Tuesday March 4 2003, Abridged extract from Maggie : The First Lady by Brenda Maddox, Hodder & Stoughton
[3] #
[4]
[5] The Daily Mail, Tuesday March 4 2003, Abridged extract from Maggie : The First Lady by Brenda Maddox, Hodder & Stoughton
[6] Hugh Stephenson, Mrs Thatcher's First Year, Jill Norman 1980, pp.29-30
[7] Peter Hennessy, Whitehall, 1989, p.31
Influence of Thatcher's religious upbringing on her economic policy
Margaret Thatcher has herself identified her father Alfred Roberts as the single greatest influence on her life, shaping her future political career "He brought me up to believe all the things I do believe and they are the values on which I fought the election" [1]
Thatcher received a strict upbringing with a strong emphasis on religion. At the very core of Thatcher's Wesleyan Methodism religion was the idea of personal responsibility to God. Thatcher would often refer to her religious beliefs in speeches and even attribute elements of the formation of her policies to her beliefs "taking together these key elements from the Old and New Testaments, we gain: a view of the universe, a proper attitude to work, and principles to shape economic and social life." [2]. Thatcher believed that one's social and religious responsibilities were completely intertwined and it was the duty of the government to "bring out the good in people." [3]. She developed this idea further in her speech to the general assembly of the Church of Scotland "the state must never become so great that it effectively removes personal responsibility." [4]
The religious convictions instilled in Thatcher as a child can be related to her struggle during her time in office against socialism. Thatcher believed that it was necessary for a safety net to exist in society "In our generation, the only way we can ensure that no one is left without sustenance, help or opportunity is to have laws to provide for health and education, pensions for the elderly, succour for the sick and disabled."[5]
Thatcher was less opposed to the idea of socialism itself than the way in which it was achieved. Socialism posed a major moral dilemma for her as it fundamentally removes freedom and choice from the individual, which for Thatcher was akin to the loss of personal responsibility, which lay at the very core of her religious beliefs.
Thatcher saw the idea of choice as the fundamental basis, which underpins the modern Western world, therefore socialism and its lack of choice posed a significant threat to this. Therefore Thatcher, a self confessed “conviction politician” [6] used her life long personal religious beliefs to influence and justify her policy of anti-socialist government. When she became British Prime Minister, Thatcher put her cherished policies of limiting government control such as returning education, health care, and housing to private control into fruition, thus allowing individuals greater independence from the state while at the same time she crushed institutions such as the Trades Unions, which promoted socialist ideas, therefore it is possible to identity the basis for these economic and social policies of the Conservative government in the 1980's as having their roots in Thatcher's religious upbringing.
[1] Campbell, John. Margaret Thatcher: a Grocer's Daughter, London: Random
House, 2000, 29.
[2] Harris, Robin, ed. The Collected Speeches of Margaret Thatcher, New
York: HarperCollins, 1997, p310.
[3] Harris, Robin, ed. The Collected Speeches of Margaret Thatcher, New
York: Harper Collins, 1997, p311.
[4] Harris, Robin, ed. The Collected Speeches of Margaret Thatcher, New
York: Harper Collins, 1997, p75.
[5] Harris, Robin, ed. The Collected Speeches of Margaret Thatcher, New
York: Harper Collins, 1997, p311.
[6] http://www.fortifyingthefamily.com/Margaret_Thatcher_on_Freedom.html
Bibliography
Campbell, John. Margaret Thatcher: a Grocer's Daughter, London: Random
House Jonathan Cape, 2000.
Evans, Eric J. Thatcher and Thatcherism, New York: Routledge, 1997.
Harris, Robin, ed. The Collected Speeches of Margaret Thatcher, New York:
Harper Collins, 1997.
Jenkins, Peter. Mrs. Thatcher's Revolution: the Ending of the Socialist
Era. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988.
Seldon, Anthony. Britain under Thatcher, New York: Longman, 2000.
Thatcher, Margaret, The Downing Street Years, New York: Harper Collins, 1993.
