'She was more of a bloke than a bloke'

AS Margaret Thatcher stood at the door of Number 10 in her dark blue suit, smiling and waving, the sense of expectation was almost palpable. Here was a woman who had made it to the top. She was a wife and mother and, for the first time, the women of Britain had a Prime Minister who understood the issues that affected them.

To a generation galvanised by feminism, it was the ultimate achievement, no matter what their political persuasion. "I don't care if Margaret Thatcher was the devil," said Labour MP Oona King, "it meant so much to me that I was growing up when two women - she and the Queen - were running the country."

While Mrs Thatcher may not have turned out to be the devil exactly, there were thousands of women who would have sworn she was very closely related, simply because she did so little for them, even within her own government.

"If you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman," she once famously remarked, but the Iron Lady didn't follow her own advice. Paradoxically, having risen through the ranks to lead her country and secure her place in history, Mrs Thatcher was reluctant to appoint other women to her cabinet.

It started promisingly with the appointment of Lady Young as Education Minister. This was followed by a period as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in 1981 and later Leader of the House of Lords. In 1982, she became Lord Privy Seal but had to make way for William Whitelaw the following year. And that was it. The late Baroness Young was in fact she was the only woman appointed to the Cabinet during Mrs Thatcher's 11 years in power.

Mrs Thatcher admitted she didn't find it easy to work with other women, even one she regarded as a "great friend", and she certainly didn't believe that quota systems were the way to getting more women into politics; she thought this might affect the quality.

"I don't want to get to a position where 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," she said.

The knock-on effects were considerable. Female politicians received little encouragement so there was a dearth of suitable candidates. When John Major formed his first cabinet, there was outrage at his failure to include a woman. Gillian Shepherd and Virginia Bottomley were brought in at the first opportunity but this was accompanied by accusations of tokenism.

Today, women account for only 118 of our 657 MPs. Labour has attempted to change the balance with its controversial women-only shortlists but only four of their 30 North-East seats are held by women: Hilary Armstrong in Durham North West, Joyce Quin in Gateshead East and Washington West, Dari Taylor in Stockton South and Vera Baird in Redcar.

Mrs Baird is scathing about Mrs Thatcher's achievements. "That will be a short article," she says.

"Margaret Thatcher didn't make the path clear for women at all. She didn't bring women's issues onto the agenda. She did nothing. She was the kind of successful woman who got there by being more of a bloke than a bloke. She played the nasty political games better than men and thought that if she had made it on her own, other women didn't need any help.

"She left out the fact she had a multi-millionaire husband so there was no problem about having her children looked after while she went out and concentrated on her career - opportunities that other women didn't have."

Mrs Baird does, however, admit that having a woman Prime Minister was a significant event in itself - an indication that women could make it to the top. Mrs Thatcher was undoubtedly a role model, and as recently as November 2002, she was named as the favourite role model for professional women juggling both families and careers.

But they were probably too young to remember her record and the fact she ignored key issues such as child care, single parenting, domestic violence - "issues she didn't have any experience of and didn't have the vision to see affected other people," says Mrs Baird.

Mrs Thatcher certainly didn't see herself as a feminist. "I owe nothing to women's lib," she stated in her typically blunt manner. She did not feminise politics and saw herself as more of a patriarch, along the lines of her heroes: her own father and Winston Churchill.

Many people believe the key to her success was her ability to distance herself from women and women's issues, and the women's movement disowned her, feeling betrayed by her lack of action.

Dr Gill Gillespie, senior lecturer in social statistics at Northumbria University, says: "There was a lot of expectation when she was elected but we know very well there was hardly anything that led to those expectations being realised. In fact, there is much more on the negative side."

Under Mrs Thatcher, the Conservatives began to roll back the welfare state, promoting individualism in its place, and one of the first things they did was to reduce benefits for single parents.

"Everyone was supposed to look after themselves and their families and the state was not going to provide working mothers with any child care or benefits. She really believed that women should stay at home and look after their children. Because she had got there despite the odds, she thought other people should do the same," says Dr Gillespie.

"She tried to put forward the married family as the ideal situation for bringing up children but demographics meant that diversity was the key. She rewarded people who were married with tax benefits and took away benefits for those who were in different types of families."

Her policies also affected women in the workplace. As unemployment rose, she did nothing to protect the part-time sector, which was employing growing numbers of women, and she vetoed measures to safeguard parental rights, including maternity leave.

The child support legislation that came in under John Major in 1993 had been formulated by his predecessor.

"That set males and females against each other. It linked the payment of maintenance to contact with children and it also tried to re-establish the roles of breadwinner and carer - men should support the family financially and women should stay at home and look after them."

The effects of her long reign are still being felt. An Electoral Commission report last month found that women are far more disillusioned with politics than men and they are less likely to join political parties and participate in politics, even at grassroots level.

It is perhaps the ultimate irony that Mrs Thatcher, through her own achievements, showed women what was possible, and then made it extremely difficult for them to follow suit. Apart from demonstrating that a woman could make it to Number 10, she did very little for women, both in politics and everyday life.

NEXT WEEK

What Maggie did for the North-East/