Geralyn McNally for BBC Radio Northern Ireland
Prime Minister, I would like to begin by asking you was it ever your intention to follow a political career or did chance play its part?
Prime Minister
Geralyn McNallyGeralyn, first, welcome to No. 10 and for the listeners, this interview is taking place in my study where so many of the fundamental decisions are taken, and your first question is really very very pertinent.
Right at the beginning, no, I do not think it was my intention to follow a political career for a very practical reason:
I have always had to earn my own living - I knew that I would have to - and when I was making up my mind MPs were not paid very much, they were not paid enough to live on, and so until they were, it did not become possible for me even to think about it, but I was already very interested in politics; at school; I discussed a lot of things with Alfred Robertsmy father, I went to every debating society, so the interest was there, and as soon as it became possible then these great visions of being an MP became possible for me. [end p1]
Geralyn McNally for BBC Radio Northern Ireland
And, as a career, has it really fulfilled your expectations?
Prime Minister
In every way.
There is something totally fascinating about being at the centre of things and feeling the importance of each and every decision, because you really can affect the future - and didn't you yourself feel, as you came up the stairs and you came past the portraits of all the previous prime ministers, that there was something very special about even being here? You felt that?
Geralyn McNally for BBC Radio Northern Ireland
Yes.
Prime Minister
Well, let me tell you there is something very special about being here and each and every one who works in No. 10, in whatever capacity, feels it.
Yes, it has fulfilled all my expectations.
Geralyn McNally for BBC Radio Northern Ireland
We all imagine it as a twenty-five-hour-day job every day of the week. Is it really an arduous task? [end p2]
Prime Minister
Yes, it is very arduous. On any day, I will have between about eight and twelve engagements. Some of them are meetings; some of them are like this; some of them are going out to do other things; some of them are going across to the House of Commons and answering questions, taking part in debates; but at the end of the day, when you have done all that, you still have to come back and in my little room which is over this - the sitting room of our flat - you have to look at all of the papers for the next day or at the week-ends for the next week; just think: “Is there anything I have left undone today?” and just have a quick think about tomorrow. Now, what are the important things tomorrow? And as you go through the meetings, now what are the decisions we have to take? And then, at week-ends, always thinking of the longer-term things, and during the Parliamentary Recess, thinking: “Now, what are the policies we have got to get ready for ten years in advance? Or, where do we want to be at the end of this century?
Yes, twenty-five hours, but you know, you told me before that you are very keen on law and I wish you every success. I too was very keen on law. The great secret of work is if your work is also your pleasure, it is the thing you want to do more than anything else, so I wish you well too. [end p3]
Geralyn McNally for BBC Radio Northern Ireland
Thank you. I would imagine you have had to fight certain prejudices in your rise through the political ranks and it is said that women have to fight twice as hard as men to achieve their goal, especially in political life.
Looking back, do you agree that this has been so for you?
Prime Minister
You do have to overcome a certain amount of prejudice, or you did at least when I started, and I think there is still some.
You see, the difficulty is to get selected to fight a seat and you know, whether it is in Parliament, whether it is on my side of the House, the Government side, or the Opposition side, there are not really very many women - about 30 out of about 650. It is far too small.
As a matter of fact, we managed to get more women into the House of Lords, where we can appoint them, and if you look, it is the same too in other great democracies.
In the United States, there is one woman in the Senate, comparatively few women in the House of Representatives.
It is the same in France; it is the same in Germany. Very very few women.
It is partly prejudice in selecting them, but it is partly that - and this is very much the message I want to get through - we do not get enough women coming forward. Far fewer women come [end p4] forward wanting to get into Parliament, perhaps because in their early days of marriage they have to look after their children, but if more came forward we would get more chosen.
Apart from that, we are breaking down the prejudice and we are constantly now looking as a positive thing for more women to take office on some of the great public bodies, on some of the great boards, like the British Railways Board and I am sure that Private Secretaries looking for people to become directors, to become managers - we are looking for more, so the opportunities for your generation are infinitely greater - and so they should be!
Geralyn McNally for BBC Radio Northern Ireland
And, in your opinion, can this change?
Prime Minister
I think it is gradually getting better and in the City, which I always regarded as of the last bastions which women had to conquer, there are many many more women. There are many many more women financial journalists; now, you have got a woman editor of a newspaper. We are getting through to the top and it is becoming not a matter in which everyone says: “My goodness me, she is a woman editor!” “She is a woman prime minister!” “She is a woman Member of Parliament!” It is becoming much more normal and it really will help a great deal. There are women judges too. We want more of them, but each of us, I think, who does this kind of job wishes that we were less conspicuous than we are and by the time you come up maybe to sit here, it will be quite natural! [end p5]
Geralyn McNally for BBC Radio Northern Ireland
Yes. Therefore, what advice would you give to a girl of my age with a political awareness who might be entertaining the idea of a political career?
Prime Minister
You have got the first thing - you are interested in it. You would not be here unless you were.
If you are interested in it, you have to try to learn more and more and more about it the whole time. Talk to some of your Members of Parliament, go to discussion groups, learn, read, listen to people who have experience of serving overseas. Always, always, try to learn and then try to join - and you will find great opportunities at university - various debating societies, because I will tell you something about women; we are much more shy of public speaking than men are and so you have to get used to the sound of your own voice. You have to get used to how to get your point across, not only know what you want to say but you consider how to get it across and sharpen it up.
So always work at what you want to do.
Consider how to do public speaking and to get your point across. Constantly try to meet people involved in it, because that will stimulate your interest further, and then, join the political party of your choice and again, make it your main thing in addition to the work that you do. [end p6]
Geralyn McNally for BBC Radio Northern Ireland
So would you agree that there is a bright future for women in politics?
Prime Minister
Yes, there is a bright future and women have a great contribution to make. After all, do not forget women are in the majority, you know.
Geralyn McNally for BBC Radio Northern Ireland
Is your femininity and appearing feminine important to you?
Prime Minister
I dress as I like to dress. That is, in my position I reckon you have to be tailored, neat, not flamboyant, but you know, being very neat and tailored does not take away from being feminine at all and I just dress the way I wish and right now I do find that I am wearing suits more and more, not only because I like them, but also they look good. You can be in them the whole day and I have never noticed them taking away one's femininity.
I said “snap” to you when you came in. You are wearing a navy and white check suit - I am wearing a grey black and white stripes and I thought: “My goodness, we are doing very nicely!” Your mother is also sitting here and wearing another outfit and I have one very similar and I could have said “snap” to her. I have [end p7] just arsquouired mine and I am very pleased with it. I had it actually, to go to the NATO Summit. It was a sapphire blue suit. Mine has a short skirt and a long skirt, so I can wear it for day and evening, and it is about the same shape as your mother's. Mine has not got a vent in the back, but there you are! You come and we are both wearing something very very similar. Your mother, as I said, looks more like your sister; she is very feminine; you are very feminine; and so it does not matter whether you are Prime Minister, we are wearing similar clothes because we like them.
Geralyn McNally for BBC Radio Northern Ireland
What other women of today do you admire?
Prime Minister
I had great admiration for Mrs. Gandhi, obviously. I have great admiration for another woman prime minister, Eugenia Charles - she is prime minister of a small island in the Caribbean, Dominica; she is absolutely terrific.
But then, there are other women I admire greatly. I admire some women judges I know, but I admire, I think, perhaps most of all, people like Mother Teresa. She is concentrated goodness - absolutely concentrated goodness - and it shines out of her, it really does, and I think most of us like to feel that we are doing not only the work that we want to do, but we are doing things that are really good - and so she perhaps is a marvellous example to us all, whatever we are doing. [end p8]
(CHANGE OF TAPE)
Geralyn McNally for BBC Radio Northern Ireland
And just to finish off, I would like to ask you how would you wish to be remembered?
Prime Minister
Well, I think as a Prime Minister who believed certain things and never departed from those beliefs because she believed they were right and she kept on with those things and she never did things because they were expedient or because it was convenient. We did not flinch from doing them because they were difficult, and therefore, we tried to bring a consistency and a feeling that people may disagree with us, but they respect us, and we know where we are going and we never just say: “Do that!” We say: “This is what we want to do! This is the reason why we want to do it! This is the reason why we believe it will work! It may be difficult, but that must never deflect us!” and that is always the thing which has guided me, and it was a thing which Alfred Robertsmy father taught me, which I have never forgotten, which I knew then to be right, which I believe now to be right, and which I have tried to do. [end p9]
Geralyn McNally for BBC Radio Northern Ireland
Thank you very much!
Prime Minister
Best wishes to you with your own future!
Geralyn McNally for BBC Radio Northern Ireland
Thank you!