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
Statue of Margaret Thatcher (Palace of Westminster) Baroness Thatcher in real life. Comparisons were made with such statues as the statue of Winston Churchill outside the Houses of Parliament in Parliament Square which measures high. The only statue suggested which was shorter than that of Margaret Thatcher in the Houses of Parliament, was that of Captain Cook near the Greenwich Observatory, which is only high. Once installed, the statue of Thatcher left only three former Prime Ministers missing from being represented in the Members Lobby: Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Bonar Law and Neville Chamberlain. The statue's arrival was not welcomed by all MPs; the Labour MP Stephen Hepburn