Margaret Thatcher - 40 years on from her election as PM
Woman's Hour
BBC
4.1 • 3K Ratings
🗓️ 1 May 2019
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It is 40 years since the UK elected its first woman Prime Minister on May 3rd 1979. We’re marking this moment in our political history with a look at the late Margaret Thatcher. She remains a deeply controversial and divisive figure, admired by many and disliked by others. We explore her symbolic importance as a female leader and look at her impact on women’s lives. Jenni Murray discusses how women’s participation in politics, society and the economy changed throughout the 1980s. We hear from those who met her and discuss why some continue to feel conflicted about her legacy.
Presenter: Jenni Murray Producer: Ruth Watts Interviewed guest: Julia Langdon Interviewed guest: Caroline Slocock Interviewed guest: Anne McElvoy
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.6 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.4 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable |
| 0:14.3 | experts and genuinely engaging voices. What you may not know is that the BBC |
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| 0:36.0 | BBC Sounds, Music Radio Podcasts. |
| 0:41.0 | Hello Jenny Murray welcoming you to Wednesdons. podcasts. May 1979 the UK elected its first woman prime minister. She of course hated the |
| 0:56.7 | concept of a woman prime minister and whenever I asked how she dealt with being a |
| 1:01.0 | woman prime minister and coping with all the references to her gender, |
| 1:05.1 | whether it was the handbag or the hat. |
| 1:07.3 | She would say, Jenny, I am not a woman prime minister, I am THE prime Minister. Well today we devote the whole |
| 1:15.1 | program to the late Margaret Thatcher. Why were feminists delighted and appalled at |
| 1:21.4 | her election almost in equal measure. |
| 1:24.0 | And what is the legacy for the rest of us after a new generation of young men, |
| 1:28.0 | one of my sons included, said as it was announced |
| 1:32.0 | John Major was to take over but mom I thought Prime Minister |
| 1:36.7 | was a woman's job. On May the 4th as Mrs Thatcher came to Downing Street for the first time she was |
| 1:43.8 | interviewed for PM there was much less security in those days and no gates and the |
| 1:50.0 | whole day's news buzzed with the excitement, shock and surprise at what had just happened. |
| 1:57.0 | Have you gotten any thoughts, Mrs. Fletcher, at this moment about Mrs. Pankhurst and your own mentor in political life, your own father? |
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