Margaret Bondfield By 1973, Christmas reported, only 93 women had sat in parliament; their contributions had overall "not been stunning". Their best numerical representation at that point had been in the 1966 general election, when 29 women (out of 630 MPs) had been elected. The 1979 election saw this number fall to 19, but also saw Margaret Thatcher become Britain's first woman prime minister. Cox and Hobley draw attention to Thatcher's early life as a shopkeeper's daughter, and contrast her account of those days with Bondfield's experiences half a century earlier. Thatcher believed that the concept of service to the customer was
Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tyne. William Whitelaw was Margaret Thatcher's "de facto" deputy from 1979–1988, an unofficial position he combined with that of Home Secretary in 1979–1983 and Leader of the House of Lords after 1983. Sir Geoffrey Howe was bestowed the title of Deputy Prime Minister by Thatcher in 1989, on being removed from the post of Foreign Secretary. He resigned as her deputy in 1990, making a resignation speech that is widely thought to have hastened Thatcher's downfall. Thatcher's successor John Major did not appoint a Deputy Prime Minister until 1995, when Michael Heseltine was given the post. John Prescott, who was