BBC Radio 4 Extra

Women in Politics

Factual: Politics

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Women in Politics

Margaret Thatcher, Barbara Castle and Shirley Williams discuss women in politics in 1972.

4 Extra Debut. Margaret Thatcher, Barbara Castle and Shirley Williams discuss why so few women were entering politics back in 1972.

It's 100 years since the 1918 The Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act was passed allowing women to stand for Parliament on 21st November 1918.

This programme, not heard since its original broadcast in 1972, finds out what it felt like to be a female politician. The presenter is Anthony King.

In 1972, 54% of the electorate were women - yet out of 630 MPs, there were only 26 women and only one in the Cabinet. 

Why do so few women enter politics? Why is there so much prejudice against them? 

Anthony King investigates what was happening in the early 1970s with Barbara Castle MP, Pat Hornsby-Smith MP, Margaret Thatcher MP and Shirley Williams, and recordings from BBC Sound Archives, including the first woman in Parliament, Nancy Astor, and the first woman Cabinet Minister, Margaret Bondfield. 

Producer: Anne Buncan-Jones

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 1972.

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