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Laura Marks

ByLaura Marks, Laura Marks

Opinion

Don’t drown in Maggie’s wake

April 21, 2013 09:14
3 min read

It is more than 30 years since Margaret Thatcher became our first female prime minister, trailblazing the way for women, changing the rules and smashing the glass ceiling. Although we don't buy that for a moment, it is worth considering what this formidable leader really did for women and what we as a Jewish community can learn.

Today, fewer than 10 per cent of independent nations are led by women. Only 22 per cent of MPs and 15 per cent of seats on boards of FTSE 100 companies are taken by women. In the Jewish world, the situation is even worse; women fill just 13 per cent of top leadership roles. What has gone wrong and why haven't the expectations of Women's Lib, bra burning feminism and the Sex Discrimination Act of 1975, filtered through to our community, well over a quarter of a century later?

In 1970, Margaret Thatcher, MP for Finchley, was co-chair of the Women's National Commission. Beyond that, it's hard to find any evidence of Thatcher aligning herself with the women's cause. Her view was that "the battle for women's rights has largely been won". As she said: "I hate those strident tones we hear from some Women's Libbers".

While the number of women MPs rose from 27 to 43 in the Thatcher years, she appointed just one woman to cabinet. While her pool of choice may have been limited, the women who made it to MP were presumably determined and talented. Certainly, the issue of "positive discrimination" is fraught and we shouldn't be promoting anyone with lesser skills. But where there is an equal choice, why not give the under-represented group a voice to offer a different view?