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In Europe, those with political power, power in the public sphere, are overwhelmingly’men in suits’. Women in positions of primary political power are and have been a rarity in European government and politics, with the possible exceptions of Norway (Bystydzienski, 1992) and Sweden (Richards, 1993). In 1994 in Britain, a handful of women do hold positions of political power, for example as Secretary of State for Education. Until recently, Margaret Beckett was Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and, for a short time, Acting Leader following the death of John Smith. However, Margaret Thatcher’s achievements, of being the first woman leader of a British political party and the first woman Prime Minister of Britain, remain remarkable and unsurpassed. Her name is used to describe a political ideology-Thatcherism-and her coming to office in 1979 is a watershed date in terms of historical periodization. Margaret Thatcher …