On 4 May 1979, Margaret Thatcher took office as the UK's first female prime minister. With a PoD after that: Create a scenario which has Britain been governed EXCLUSIVELY by women to this day!
Margaret Thatcher
Edwina Curry
Margaret Beckett
Yvette Cooper
Theresa May
That is the most plausible lineup I could think of quickly, the question is how you engineer this.
No Falklands war. Shirley Williams becomes agreed alliance leader, probably because of of a vote by all Liberal and SDP members.
Wins the 1984 election
alOk, so Maggie doesn't get deposed, eventually losing an election to Labour. The question then is "who is a suitable female Labour leader"? Margaret Beckett, maybe?
Eventually, the Tories would come back in, with a charismatic female leader.
Williams left Labour in 1981 so the Falklands war not happening cant achieve her becoming a Labour PM in 1984. A British military disaster possibly could see the Alliance win.So...
What about this, then?
1979 - 1984 Margaret Thatcher
1984 - 1995 Shirley Williams
1995 - 1998 Margaret Beckett
1998 - 2006 Edwina Currie
2006 - 2012 Theresa May
2012 - Yvette Cooper
There is no Falklands War, Shirley Williams as a unifying Labour leader wins in '84. She sustains her majority in '89 and '94, both times against a patronizing male opponent. The Tories are therefore willing to go for something new, resulting in Edwina Currie's rise to the top. Meanwhile, Williams retires at the age of 65. Her handpicked successor Beckett fails to convince, plus the people are tired after 13 years of Labour rule. Currie, whose media-friendliness suits the new millennium, wins easily in '98 and rather narrowly against Tony Blair in 2003, but proves as too irresponsible for the office of PM in her second term. She is forced out of office and compromise candidate Theresa May takes over. First viewed as a caretaker PM, May surprisingly manages to defeat a media-hyped Labour opponent in 2007. Labour undergoes a generational change and Yvette Cooper wins the party's 2011 leadership race as well as the General Election a year later.
Anti-feminist? That's something of a large claim. She might not have tried to push women ahead but I'm not aware of her putting roadblocks in their paths.I doubt it was possible, Margaret Thatcher was quite anti-feminist...
Agree that to make this happen you have to have Thatcher beaten by a female leader of another party- she never really promoted any women into prominent positions.
Shirley Williams was perhaps the only other major female politician during the Thatcher era, but I'm not sure how plausible her becoming PM at the head of an Alliance government is. Though she was heavily lobbied to run, I dont think she ever wanted to be leader due to her personal life- plus I dont think no Falklands is enough for an Alliance victory- the war would have to be fought and lost to generate the scale of discontent needed for them to overcome the barriers of the two party system- but if that were to happen, Thatcher would probably resign.
I think it would be more plausible to have Thatcher to survive into the early 1990s, and then be beaten by Beckett in a GE. Perhaps Healey beats Foot in 1980, leads Labour to a better performance in 1983, before resigning in favour of John Smith, who makes some small gains in 1987, before dying of a heart attack shortly before 1992. As his deputy, Beckett steps and wins a landslide in part because of sympathy votes after Smith's death and in part because the turmoil that Labour suffered in the 1980s wasnt nearly as bad. Beckett wins re-election, before retiring around 1999/2000, and being succeeded by Harriet Harman. After she wins a third election in a row at the head of a Labour Party that is slightly to the left of what it was IOTL, the Tories conclude that they need a leader who can appeal to economically interventionist voters, whilst bridging the internal divide on Europe. Enter Theresa May. She defeats Labour to become PM in the mid 2000s, but the financial crisis and infighting over Europe mean that her government only last one term, and she is comfortably beaten by Labour under Yvette Cooper, who continues as PM to this day.
It is, but that's partly a reflection of the fact that Labour has had the lion share of high profile female MPs until recently. It's rather difficult to find any woman who had a genuine shot at the Tory leadership between Thatcher and May.1979 - 1992 Margaret Thatcher
1992 - 1999 Margaret Beckett
1999 - 2005 Harriet Harman
2005 - 2010 Theresa May
2010 - ???? Yvette Cooper
Thank you, I'm more than satisfied!! Bit of a Labour wank, though.
Really odd then that both Thatcher and May actually became PM IOTL, whereas Labour still waits for their first woman PM. On the other hand, the more hostile the environment, the more assertive those women become. But that might be a platitude by now ...It is, but that's partly a reflection of the fact that Labour has had the lion share of high profile female MPs until recently. It's rather difficult to find any woman who had a genuine shot at the Tory leadership between Thatcher and May.
Agree that to make this happen you have to have Thatcher beaten by a female leader of another party- she never really promoted any women into prominent positions.
Shirley Williams was perhaps the only other major female politician during the Thatcher era, but I'm not sure how plausible her becoming PM at the head of an Alliance government is. Though she was heavily lobbied to run, I dont think she ever wanted to be leader due to her personal life- plus I dont think no Falklands is enough for an Alliance victory- the war would have to be fought and lost to generate the scale of discontent needed for them to overcome the barriers of the two party system- but if that were to happen, Thatcher would probably resign.
I think it would be more plausible to have Thatcher to survive into the early 1990s, and then be beaten by Beckett in a GE. Perhaps Healey beats Foot in 1980, leads Labour to a better performance in 1983, before resigning in favour of John Smith, who makes some small gains in 1987, before dying of a heart attack shortly before 1992. As his deputy, Beckett steps and wins a landslide in part because of sympathy votes after Smith's death and in part because the turmoil that Labour suffered in the 1980s wasnt nearly as bad. Beckett wins re-election, before retiring around 1999/2000, and being succeeded by Harriet Harman. After she wins a third election in a row at the head of a Labour Party that is slightly to the left of what it was IOTL, the Tories conclude that they need a leader who can appeal to economically interventionist voters, whilst bridging the internal divide on Europe. Enter Theresa May. She defeats Labour to become PM in the mid 2000s, but the financial crisis and infighting over Europe mean that her government only last one term, and she is comfortably beaten by Labour under Yvette Cooper, who continues as PM to this day.