Feminism, Thatcherism & Social Division

Thatcher’s View of Feminism

• 1978: Thatcher criticised feminism as “strident” and damaging to women.

• Believed in individual equality of opportunity, not structural change.

• Assumed the nuclear family posed no barrier to ambitious women.

• Rejected feminist analysis of patriarchy → created tension with women’s movements.

Feminist Campaigns in the 1980s

The radicalism of the 1970s evolved into new movements focused on marginalised women.

Selma James & Sex Workers’ Rights

• Spokesperson for the English Collective of Prostitutes.

• Demanded:

  • decriminalisation

  • financial alternatives

  • recognition of sex work

  • safety for sex workers

• Also led Wages for Housework campaign:

  • Argued housework = unpaid labour subsidising patriarchal society.

  • Claimed domestic labour was compulsory, not a “choice”.

• Feminist Critiques of Thatcherism

  • Filmmaker Sally Potter argued Thatcherism:

    • Valued male‑dominated professions (finance).

    • Stigmatised “caring professions” (women’s work).

    • Blamed welfare dependency → implicitly blamed women for national decline.

The Anti‑Pornography Movement

• Feminists linked pornography to domestic violence and rape.

• Argued Page 3 and similar images reinforced female submissiveness + male dominance.

• Labour MP Clare Short campaigned to ban Page 3 (unsuccessful).

• Highlighted divisions between feminists and conservatives over morality, censorship, and women’s representation.

Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp

• Major feminist protest against US cruise missiles at RAF Greenham Common.

• Women‑only protest:

  • Emphasised femininity as linked to peace and motherhood.

  • Created a political space free from male dominance.

• Tactics: vigils, human chains, civil disobedience (cutting fences, entering base).

• Press reaction: hostile — portrayed women as naive, unfeminine, dirty, abnormal.

• Thatcher: said protesters should be “eradicated”.

• Police evicted most protesters (1984); small group remained until missiles removed (1987).

• Symbol of feminist resistance + state hostility.

Women’s Rights Under Major

• Major’s Back to Basics campaign often blamed lone mothers for social problems.

• BUT his government passed significant reforms:

  • Criminalised rape within marriage (major legal milestone).

  • More moderate stance on women’s rights than Thatcher.

Overall Evaluation

• Thatcher saw diversity (feminism, LGBT rights, multiculturalism) as a threat to social harmony.

• Her policies aimed to promote one moral vision and suppress alternatives → often increased social and political division.

• Her economic ideas reshaped Britain, but her moral conservatism failed to win consensus.

• By mid‑1990s:

  • Racism declining

  • LGBT stigma weakening

  • Growing support for equality laws later passed under Blair

• Indicates Thatcher’s moral agenda was out of step with changing social attitudes