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.
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.