1st woman PM to grace 10 Downing Street

Forty-six years ago, on this day, carrying a black handbag and dressed in a royal blue pleated skirt with a matching boxy jacket, Margaret Thatcher walked through the iconic six-panelled black oak door of 10 Downing Street as the country’s first woman Prime Minister, marking a significant milestone in the United Kingdom’s history. Thatcher, also called the 'Iron Lady', shaped the politics of the UK for over 11 years and is regarded as the longest serving PM of the UK in modern times.

Her political forays took off when she was elected as the first woman president of the Oxford University Conservative Association, and gained momentum in 1950, when she ran for Parliament in Dartford. Even though she lost the election, she managed to secure an impressive number of votes in the generally liberal constituency. In 1959, she was elected to Parliament as a Conservative for Finchley, a north London district. During the 1960s, she rose rapidly within the ranks of the Conservative Party, and in 1967, joined the shadow Cabinet, sitting in opposition to Harold Wilson’s ruling Labour Cabinet. With the victory of the Conservative Party under Edward Health in 1970, Thatcher became Secretary of State for Education and Science. The big break came in 1975, when she became the leader of the Conservative Party, and in 1979, she made history by becoming the first woman PM of the UK. She held the position until 1990.

Thatcher inherited a country struggling with economic decline, industrial unrest, widespread strikes, and deep public disillusionment. The Labour government under James Callaghan had collapsed, unable to restore order after the infamous “winter of discontent” — a time when garbage piled up in the streets, and even the dead went unburied. She soon began to take measures that came to be known as ‘Thatcherism’— marked by free-market capitalism, individual responsibility, privatisation of state-owned industries, strong stance against trade unions, and limited government intervention in the economy.

Thatcher was acutely aware of being a woman in a male-dominated environment and used clothing to craft an image of power, control, and respectability, without appearing overly masculine. She unapologetically carried her handbag, which, eventually, became a political symbol and an extension of her authority, so much so that that the term “hand-bagging” entered the political lexicon, referring to her sharp, assertive treatment of colleagues and opponents.

Her quote succinctly captured her beliefs: “Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.” She died in 2013, at the age of 87.

Radhika Pasrija