Department of Culture, Media and Drama, UWE, Bristol.
Gender and Culture Research Group
Conference May 8th – 9th  2009 
In association with the Bristol Festival of Ideas

The Shadow of Thatcher: Women, Feminism, Politics and Culture 30 Years On
Call for Papers 
Key Speakers:
*Charlotte Brunsdon * Heather Nunn * Jackie Stacey  * Beverley Skeggs *

The first British woman Prime Minister. A resolute anti-feminist. Political icon. 
Scourge of the left. What is the legacy for feminists and cultural scholars of 
Margaret Thatcher’s premiership?

As the 30th anniversary of Margaret Thatcher’s election as Conservative Prime 
Minister in 1979 approaches, a number of films and TV programmes have 
looked back reflectively, sometimes nostalgically, on the 1980s and her term 
of office (This is England, Tory, Tory, Tory!, The Road to Finchley, The Line of 
Beauty). Thatcher herself has been celebrated as the elder statesperson par 
excellence, on the pages of Vogue and posing with the Prime Minister on the 
steps of Downing Street, her personal image as the ‘iron lady’ burnished and 
brightened by an increasingly mythical status. The current revival of ‘eighties’ 
fashions and music has also mobilised the re-imagining of Thatcherism as a 
powerful, abrasive, and deeply productive driving force in British popular 
culture. No other national politician has been so profoundly or so consistently 
associated with such a wide range of cultural, social and political formations 
and identities as Margaret Thatcher, while Thatcherism, whether defined as a 
narrowly political ideology or as a set of tropes about nationhood, identity and 
culture, retains its resonance in everyday life. Why is this and what does it 
mean?

This conference will offer the opportunity to reflect on the continuing impact 
of Thatcherism and of Margaret Thatcher on feminist politics and popular 
culture since the 1980s.

•	Why does Margaret Thatcher remain such a powerfully iconic figure 
and what does this tell us about contemporary feminism?
•	What has been the legacy of Thatcherism for the cultural politics of 
class?
•	How has Thatcherism been represented and mediated in popular 
culture?
•	To what extent have Thatcherism and post-Thatcherism continued 
to problematise feminist politics and culture?
•	In what ways does the re-telling of the 1980s in contemporary film 
and TV compare to stories produced during that decade?

Papers and panel suggestions are invited on topics and themes which explore 
these or related issues. Please send abstracts of no more than 300 words to 
Lisa.Thrower @uwe.ac.uk by January 31st 2009.

Estella Tincknell &  Jane Arthurs 
Gender and Culture Research Group