Western Civilization - History Of European Society

The New Belle Époque: Democracy and Prosperity Since 1975 643

school milk for small children to make this point. In
British popular culture she became “Thatcher, Thatcher,
Milk Snatcher,” but in conservative circles she became
the leader of the future. She appealed to many conser-
vatives because she embodied and defended their sense
of “Victorian virtues.” As Thatcher put it, “I was brought
up to work jolly hard. We were taught to live within
our income, that cleanliness is next to godliness. We
were taught self-respect. You were taught tremendous
pride in your country.” After Heath had lost the parlia-
mentary elections of 1974, Thatcher challenged him
for the leadership of the Conservative Party in 1975
and won. She became prime minister in 1979, follow-
ing a campaign in which she promised to restore many
aspects of the nineteenth-century laissez-faire liberal

economics of free enterprise. “Free choice is ultimately

what life is about,” she proclaimed.

The Thatcher government of 1979–90 introduced

Britain (and Europe) to strict fiscal conservatism.

Thatcher championed monetarist economics that called

for limiting the money supply to curb inflation. She

coupled this with a promise to reduce taxes. The Con-

servative government honored this promise in one

sense but violated it in another: It cut income taxes, but

it raised indirect taxes, especially the national sales tax

known as the VAT. Thatcher cut top income tax rates

from 83 percent to 60 percent in 1979 and reduced

them to 40 percent in 1979; the rate paid by average

taxpayers fell from 33 percent to 30 percent and then

to 25 percent. When she tried in 1990 to compensate

CHRONOLOGY 32.2

1974 Barbara Castle becomes Britain’s first secretary of

state for social security

Simone Veil becomes France’s minister for health

Eva Kolstad becomes president of Norway’s

Liberal Party

Françoise Giroud becomes France’s first minister

for women’s affairs

1975 Margaret Thatcher becomes first woman to lead a

major British political party

1976 Mairead Corrigan and Betty Williams of North-

ern Ireland share Nobel Peace Prize

Françoise Giroud becomes France’s minister of

culture

Yelena Bonner is cofounder of Helsinki Human

Rights Group in the USSR

1979 Margaret Thatcher becomes first woman prime

minister of Britain

Petra Kelly is cofounder of West Germany’s envi-

ronmentalist Green Party

Louise Weiss becomes senior member elected to

the European Parliament

1980 Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo briefly serves as Por-

tugal’s first woman prime minister

Vigdis Finnbogadottir elected first woman presi-

dent of Iceland

Gro Brundtland becomes first woman prime min-

ister of Norway

1981 Karin Ahrland becomes Sweden’s minister for

public health

Shirley Williams is cofounder of Britain’s Social

Democratic Party

1982 Gertrud Sigurdsen becomes Sweden’s minister for

public health

Anna-Greta Leijon becomes Sweden’s minister of

labor

1983 Petra Kelly is elected Green Party member of

West German Parliament

1985 Melina Mercouri becomes Greece’s minister of

culture

1986 Anita Gradin becomes Sweden’s minister for for-

eign trade

1987 Anita-Greta Leijon becomes Sweden’s minister of

justice

Margaret Thatcher is first modern prime minister

to win three consecutive terms

1990 Mary Robinson elected first woman president of

Ireland

1991 Edith Cresson becomes first woman premier of

France

1992 Betty Boothroyd becomes first woman Speaker of

Britain’s Parliament

1993 Tansu Çiller becomes first woman prime minister

of Turkey

1997 Labour landslide includes 102 women M.P.s

The Acceptance of Women in Political Leadership, 1974–94