Chapter 7: Women Leaders in the United Kingdom, their Careers, and the Organizational Culture

Margaret Thatcher was the first, and so far the only, woman Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. She led the country for over a decade, from 1979 until 1990. It was a brave new world and many people expected this breakthrough for women in politics to automatically transfer across sectors, creating greater equality in the business world. Sadly, this was not the case. Some inspiring women, such as Mary Quant (fashion designer) and Anita Roddick (founder of Body Shop cosmetics), emerged in the business arena but rose to prominence mostly as entrepreneurs rather than as managers of larger organizations. Now, 20 years later, there are still only a few female leaders in major businesses, such as Marjorie Scardino, who recently retired after 16 years at the media giant Pearson. She was the first female chief executive to lead a major public limited company (PLC) in the United Kingdom. Similarly, there are relatively few women at senior levels of leadership in either the diplomatic or the civil service (Cohen, 2014; McCarthy, 2014).