Earliest Plausible Female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom?

When is the earliest plausible time for there to be a female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom? Who would be the plausible candidates for this?

There was a similar thread about American politics, so I thought I'd do one about the UK.

It was also sort of inspired by a something Margaret Thatcher once said, about feminism never having helped her in her political career. Whilst untrue to the extent that the rise in feminism in the 1970's would have been one of the reason's for Heath's inclusion of her in his Cabinet, it was also partly true, in that given that Thather was Conservative Leader in 1975, feminism could hardly have changed the views of her fellow MPs in only few years.

I believe the earliest plausible time would have been in the 1960's. By that time, whilst society as a whole still had very traditional views of women, there was by that stage a reasonable level of acceptance of the growing minority of professional career women.

I'm not too sure about who would be the most plausible at this time, as I don't know that much about individual UK MP's at the time. Barbara Castle is one person who springs to mind, as a possiblity.
 
A Labour lady being Leader anytime after say, 1955 isn't implausible at all, but how electable she is to the general populace is a different matter.
 
1685 - Catherine Sedley

Because the office of PM evolved slowly over time, it is hard to say when it actually began. Traditionally, the first PM was Walpole, but it grew gradually out of the ministers the monarch sent to parliament after the Revolutionary Settlement, to ask for money.

So, in 1685, rather than prorouging Parliament as he did in OTL, James II, in a deliberate insult, appoints his mistress, Catherine Sedley, Countess of Dorchester, as First Lord of the Treasury and Chief Minister. She was granted a seat on the Treasury Bench. This made her the prime liaison between Parliament and the Crown, a proto-PM. There was a small group of Royalist MPs who, though bristling at dealing with a woman, nonetheless supported her position, in deference to the Sovereign.

This would have made Catherine Sedley, the Countess of Dorchester, the first PM and the head of a minority government.

(At least until the following year when under the intense indignation of parliament, she resigns her office and leaves England for Ireland. James II then prorogues the parliament and they will not meet again during his reign.)
 
A plausible candidate is Edith Summerskill (born 19/4/1901 died 4/2/1980). She was a Labour MP from 1938 to 1961. She was Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food from 1945 to 1951, and Minister of National Insurance from 1950 to 1951. http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Summerskill .

Yes I agree with you here, although I must admit I'd never heard of her before you mentioned her. You would first have to have Attlee make her a member of Cabinet,which she wasn't as Minister of National Insurance. Was she from the left or right of the Labour Party?
 
A Labour lady being Leader anytime after say, 1955 isn't implausible at all, but how electable she is to the general populace is a different matter.

This is quite interesting. It's actually quite hard to tell how electable some is I suppose.

I have heard similar about whether there could ever be a US Republican president who was openly atheist. If you asked most Republicans (even those not associated with the Religous Right) will say no. However I believe it is more a case that there just hasn't been one so far who they have been willing to support. I remember another AH member once said that in the 1970's most Republicans would have baulked at the idea of a Republican president who was a divorced Hollywood actor, but then in the 1980's of course you have Reagan.
 
Barbara Castle (1910-2002) was a Labour politician. She held a number of offices in her career, including (from 68 to 70) "First Secretary of State". That is a title that is effectively equivalent to "Deputy Prime Minister" but without (unforunately for us AHers) any implied right of succession.

In OTL she ended up coming to blows with the trade unions when she introduced a bill to reduce their power. This pretty much led to a split in the Labour party, which then lost the 1970 general election.

KEVP
 
It's tough. In pre-electoral times, a female PM would have been inconcievable, and there are simply not enough candidates from either of the main parties to make it particularly realistic in modern times; the only one who I can think of who could concievably (but implausibly) have become PM before Barbara Castle - and under extreme circumstances at that - is Ellen Willkinson. I agree with you that realistically the sixties is the most comfortable period for this being a real possiblity.
 
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Originally posted by mtg999
Was [Edith Summerskill] from the left or the right of the Labour Party?

I would guess she was in the broad centre. Her election to the National Executive Committee of the party from 1944 to 1958 and to the Shadow Cabinet in the 1950s, and that she was Chair of the party 1954 to 1955 indicates that she had broad appeal. As far as I know she was not identified with the Bevanites or Gaitskellites.

A plausible ATL would be if Attlee appoints her Minister of Education (in the cabinet) when Ellen Wilkinson dies in February 1947. When Harold Wilson resigns from the cabinet in April 1951, Attlee appoints her to succeed Wilson as President of the Board of Trade. Alternatively she is made Minister of Health (in the cabinet) when Aneurin Bevan is moved to the Ministry of Labour in Janiary1951. After the Conservative victory in the October 1951 general election, she advances in the Shadow Cabinet in the 1950s to become Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer or Shadow Foreign Secretary. She is elected Deputy Leader of the Labour party following the death of Bevan in July 1960. She stays in the House of Commons and is not made a life peer. After the death of Hugh Gaitskell in January 1963 she is elected Leader of the party. Labour wins the October 1964 general election as in OTL and she becomes Prime Minister.
 
Ellen Wilkinson was my thought. I also wonder what happens if Attlee were to be ill and there was a deep difficulty in finding a successor. Miss Wilkinson might be acceptable to rivals...
 
Castles in the air

I heard somwhere that Ellen Wilkinson committed suicide. The most likely possibility is as Derek suggests Barbara Castle. Let us suppose the Labour government forces through in Place of Strife aided by Tory support and wins in 1970 or conversely there is no In Place of Strife as up to the failure of In Place of Strife there was a possibility.

Wilson would probably have to resign earlier than 1976 for it to be plausible and there may well have been problems within the Labour government over the Common Market.
 
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