Miriam Cates and I have a different idea of what Thatcherism was all about. To me, the Lady T era was more feminist than any other before or after because it included all people, including women, in its vision of work, wealth, power and success. It did so without all the carry on about menstruation and endometriosis and menopause and who knows what else that comes with female empowerment discourse today.
‘I felt like nothing more than a drudge,’ said Thatcher in a 1954 interview in Forward, a Conservative pamphlet, of being at home with two babies and the housework after the mental stimulation of chemistry and law. Later, she would extol the virtues of women’s role in the home as doting mothers and responsible housekeepers and decry ‘women’s lib’. But Thatcher had a quintessential belief in women’s ability to get to all the top tables, and she was among the few Conservatives to vote in favour of universal abortion (and the decriminalisation of homosexuality).
The ‘no one can replace mum’ idea seems naive and uncreative, strongly rooted in Victorian ideas of domesticity
But to Miriam Cates, Thatcher’s laser focus on incentivising economic ambition for all members of society is at odds with all that is good for women.
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