The comparison pretty much ends there, though it is interesting to see how a new generation of liberal or leftish women cope with their feelings of wanting to support, in some sense, someone whose politics they do not share, just because she is a woman
Mrs Thatcher was however anything but an instant heroine. The main reactions, as I remember them, were an unpleasant mixture of sexism & snobbishness, combined with a sense that by calling others bluff she had won election as leader of the Conservatives in a way that was somehow not quite cricket. And that was just from those in her own party
It was not until after the Falklands that she achieved her heroine status – until then it was widely believed that the Conservatives could not possibly win the next election
When Parliament was recalled to sit on a Saturday morning to discuss the reaction to the invasion of South Georgia Enoch Powell said (I quote from memory)
The Prime Minister relishes the sobriquet of the Iron Lady
But I warn her that
By her actions on this day
We shall know
Of what metal she is wrought
I can still feel myself, in the middle of ironing, standing transfixed with a shiver down my spine
And I have often wondered since if Mrs Thatcher was, in one sense, forced to go to war to prove that she was not just a weak & feeble woman, & if President Regan’s somewhat indulgent reaction was not also prompted by thoughts of letting the little woman join in & see what it was like to play with the big boys
Related post: The most important man in C20th British politics
