More than thirteen years after Margaret Thatcher’s death, the verdict on her premiership remains fiercely contested. Yet Margaret Thatcher’s women in business legacy is worth revisiting, because the debates she provoked about leadership, enterprise and equality are still live in 2026. Love her or loathe her, no one can deny that she changed the landscape. The question for Prowess readers is what that change meant, and means, for women trying to build businesses and careers in the UK. For the latest context on where women stand in UK enterprise, see Women in Business: Key UK Facts.

Leadership and the glass cliff

Thatcher came to power in 1979 during a period of profound economic and political turbulence. Researchers have since shown that women are often over-represented in leadership roles when the risk of failure is high, a phenomenon known as the glass cliff. By that measure, Thatcher was the ultimate glass-cliff leader.

She failed on many issues and was avowedly not a feminist. She did little to promote other women and her leadership style was often described as macho. Yet she also demonstrated that a woman could run the country and win three general elections. In 1979 the UK gender pay gap was far wider than it is today, and the idea that women were biologically or psychologically unsuited to senior roles was still commonplace. A woman in 10 Downing Street challenged that.

Today the picture has improved, though progress has been uneven. According to ONS data from 2024, the median hourly gender pay gap for all employees was 13.1 per cent, while for full-time employees it was 7.0 per cent. Women now hold around 44 per cent of board seats in FTSE 100 companies, according to the FTSE Women Leaders Review 2024, up from almost none in 1979. Much of that advance is down to sustained campaigning by business-led initiatives such as the 30% Club, founded by Dame Helena Morrissey to push for better gender balance at the top.

Thatcher’s personal success did not, however, translate into a flood of women into Westminster or the boardroom. When she left office in 1990, women accounted for only 6 per cent of MPs, according to the House of Commons Library. Following the July 2024 general election, women made up 242 of the 650 MPs, or 37.2 per cent, according to the House of Commons Library. Significant progress, but still short of parity. Her example was necessary but not sufficient: it took deliberate networks, targets and legislation to turn symbolism into numbers.

Thatcher’s leadership legacy is therefore symbolic rather than practical. She did not build a pipeline of women leaders, but she proved it could be done.

Enterprise for all: the 1980s record

Thatcher’s economic record is contentious. Her critics blame her for hastening the decline of manufacturing and deepening regional inequality. Yet she was unusual among modern Prime Ministers in championing small business and self-employment.

Lord Sugar recalled that she “kick-started the entrepreneurial revolution in the 80s that allowed chirpy chappies to succeed and not just the elite.” Her government launched a raft of initiatives to support small firms in its first term, and the start-up programmes it introduced reached women in far higher proportions than many later schemes. They worked because they were locally rooted, enabling rather than bureaucratic, and offered meaningful financial and practical support.

The best known, the Enterprise Allowance Scheme, gave a generation of creative and entrepreneurial people the means to start out. Alumni include the founders of Creation Records and Superdry, and artists such as Tracey Emin and Rachel Whiteread. The enterprise culture it helped to create has endured: the UK private sector business population reached around 5.6 million in 2024, according to Department for Business and Trade business population estimates, up from a far smaller base when Thatcher took office.

That legacy has been diluted by successive governments. Later schemes, including the New Enterprise Allowance and Start Up Loans, have not matched the original’s reach or accessibility for women. The Alison Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship (2019) found that only one in three UK entrepreneurs is a woman, and that closing the gender entrepreneurship gap could add up to £250 billion to the economy. Women-led businesses still receive a tiny fraction of venture capital and private equity, and many report that support is harder to find than it was in the 1980s. For current funding options, see Start Up Loans Female Founders and British Business Bank: New Funding Rules for Women Founders.

Today’s entrepreneurs operate in a very different environment. Growth hubs, mentoring programmes and start-up loans have helped many, yet women continue to report that advice is fragmented and finance is hard to access. According to British Business Bank analysis (2023), women-founded companies receive around 2 per cent of UK venture capital, and the Rose Review found that women are more likely to self-fund or borrow from family than seek institutional investment. The Rose Review argued that tackling these barriers could transform the economy, but implementation remains patchy. For more on the funding gap, read Female Founder VC Funding Gap.

The 1980s also saw the establishment of a network of women’s business organisations across the UK. Many have since closed or shrunk, casualties of austerity, short-term funding and the pandemic. At a time when the UK needs every scrap of entrepreneurial talent to drive recovery, and when women continue to face disproportionate barriers to work and finance, policymakers urgently need to revisit those “enterprise for all” principles.

How businesswomen reacted in 2013

When Margaret Thatcher died in April 2013, women entrepreneurs and business leaders offered contrasting views. Their comments still capture the complexity of her legacy.

Dame Helena Morrissey, then CEO of Newton Investment Management and founder of the 30% Club, noted that Thatcher had shown women could lead, even if she had not actively advanced other women.

Michelle Mone, founder of the Ultimo lingerie brand, praised Thatcher as an inspirational leader who proved that women could reach the top on their own terms.

Claire Young, finalist on BBC One’s The Apprentice in 2008 and now an enterprise educator, highlighted Thatcher’s role in demonstrating that women could lead in the toughest of circumstances.

Deborah Leary, inventor and CEO of Forensic Pathways, credited Thatcher with creating an environment in which people from ordinary backgrounds could start a business.

Jo Verrent, an independent diversity consultant, singled out the Enterprise Allowance Scheme as a transformative programme that gave people the confidence and cash to become self-employed.

Margaret Thatcher’s women in business legacy for you

Thatcher’s broader legacy remains divisive. Many argue that her policies and personal style held women’s progress back; others see her as a seminal source of inspiration. What is clear is that the enterprise and small-business foundations she put in place gave people from all backgrounds a real chance to start a business. For women in business today, those foundations may still be her most important legacy.

The lesson is not to wait for a political saviour. Thatcher proved that individual women can break through, but the data show that breakthroughs do not scale without systems. Networks, targets, mentoring, accessible finance and family-friendly policy are what turn one woman’s success into widespread opportunity.

Practical action steps for you

• Benchmark your pay: use the ONS gender pay gap data and the government’s gender pay gap service to understand where your sector stands.
• Access targeted finance: explore Start Up Loans, the British Business Bank’s programmes, and regional growth hubs designed to support women founders.
• Join a network: organisations such as the 30% Club, women’s business networks and sector-specific groups can provide mentorship and advocacy.
• Track policy changes: keep up with employment law, flexible working rights and funding announcements that affect women-led businesses.

Margaret Thatcher’s women in business legacy is neither simple nor settled. She was a symbol of possibility rather than a builder of inclusive systems. For UK women founders in 2026, the most useful reading of her record is this: one woman’s arrival at the top opened a door, but only collective action, policy and sustained investment can keep it open for everyone.