Iron ladies: women in Thatcher's Britain

Pictured right: Margaret Thatcher hears she is the longest serving prime minister in 1988. Copyright courtesy of the Press Association.

Running from 22 October until April 2005, the exhibition uses a wide range of original material, including documents, photographs, posters, memorabilia and clothing of the period, as well as addressing the central issues from this defining period of recent history.

Curated by historian Dr Harriet Jones, Iron ladies looks at key areas that defined Margaret Thatcher’s time as prime minister, and the effect of Thatcherite policy on women’s lives. The extraordinary degree of conflict and controversy that characterised the decade is explored, alongside the various ways in which this tension was reflected amongst women and women’s organisations. In addition, the exhibition addresses the extent to which Thatcher’s election was a reflection of women’s changing social role, as well as the ways in which her presence as a role model affected women’s lives and the history of feminism.

The exhibition is divided into six broad themes, displaying previously unseen visual and archival material from the collections of the Women’s Library and other lenders, including the Margaret Thatcher archives at Churchill College, Cambridge.

Firstly, glass ceilings draws upon material in the Thatcher archive to consider Margaret Thatcher’s own rise to power, and the extent to which her individual achievement as a woman was an aberration or whether it reflected the growing power of women in the economy and in the professions.

Thatcherism looks at Thatcher’s political career at home, and the way in which she came to represent a form of pragmatic, ‘common sense’ free market capitalism, often using domestic, feminine metaphors.

War makers and peace makers considers Thatcher’s distinct contribution to the diplomacy of the late cold war in her partnership with President Reagan and defence of nuclear deterrence, and her position as leader during the Falklands War.

Body politics explores women’s ownership of their bodies during the 1980s, through fitness classes, workout videos, self-defence training, and natural childbirth campaigns, although attitudes towards sex, abortion and contraception remained controversial and contested.

Victorian values looks at their confusion of the 1980s. Thatcher has been associated with a broader backlash against the permissive era of the 1960s and 1970s, despite increasing calls for a return to traditional social mores, there were also clear signs that women were making individual lifestyle decisions that broke with social taboos.

Finally, the exhibition reviews the legacy of Thatcherism for women in Britain.

The exhibition runs from 22 October 2004 to 2 April 2005 at the Women’s Library on London Metropolitan University’s City campus in E1 and is supported by a programme of talks, events, films and symposia.

“The many practical skills and management qualities needed to make a home…give women an ability to deal with a variety of problems and to do so quickly. And it’s that versatility and decisiveness which is so valuable in public life.”
Margaret Thatcher, 26 July 1982