The guest speaker, on the afternoon of the first day, was Mrs. Margaret Thatcher, M.P., who took as the title for her talk “Woman - no longer a Satellite.” This she felt was a shorthand phrase for the development of women's rights and the way in which legal disabilities had fallen away.

Tracing the history of woman's status, Mrs. Thatcher pointed out that in the eyes of the law a woman's being was suspended during marriage. The legal interpretation was that marriage produced one person and that person was the husband. From this idea many legal rights and titles still stand. Not until 1882 had women gained the right to own property after marriage, including earnings which hitherto had belonged theoretically to the husband.

Mrs. Thatcher gave an outline of property rights as they were in the past, and changes in legislation which led to women's present rights. They had come a long way, but often there was an enormous gap between rights and their enforcement. There were still certain disabilities which ought to be abolished. One of these was the law on the guardianship of children which, for some time, the women Members of Parliament had been trying to amend but, so far, without success. Another was the matrimonial home, and Mrs. Thatcher cited a case where a woman living in a home owned by her husband who had deserted her was turned out when the house was sold.

Turning to women's work in a Technical Age, Mrs. Thatcher said there had been tremendous changes in patterns of employment. Most jobs were now open to women, who had always risen to the occasion when there was need, and many had now achieved top jobs. Others who had married were not free to take up the work for which they were qualified until the children grew up, and were therefore behind their contemporaries when they sought employment again. This, of course, affected promotion but was something to which women would have to adjust themselves.

According to statistics, women were very wealthy - owning about 40 per cent of the total wealth of the nation. This was a tremendous contrast with the situation in 1882 when women as a whole did not own wealth.

In conclusion, Mrs. Thatcher said that women had lost all traces of subservience, and their legal rights had been increased enormously, bringing with them increased responsibilities. Women were satellites no longer, but creatures of vitality, independence, and property owners; in other words, very important people. [end p1]

(2) Evening News, 20 May 1965

Page one quote

“In politics, if you want anything said ask a man, if you want anything done ask a woman.” - Mrs. Margaret Thatcher, Cons MP for Finchley, speaking to the National Council of the Townwomen's Guilds in London this afternoon.