ALL HAIL THE ‘ BLOODY DIFFICULT WOMAN’
It was meant as a put-down but, argues The Daily Telegraph columnist Judith Woods, isn’t it time we all became generation BDW?
THANKS TO THE accelerated pace of our modern age, a day is now a long time in politics and leadership ambitions have a shorter half-life than plutonium.
Since Grazia last went to press, the country has gained not just the first female Prime Minister in 37 years but a brand-new kick-ass epithet: A Bloody Difficult Woman.
Certainly Theresa May will not be easy to second-guess. Libertarian on issues such as gay marriage and bringing workers onto company boards, she has campaigned to close the gender pay gap. But she is authoritarian on immigration and is a vocal critic of the European Convention on Human Rights, although she has conceded there is no public appetite for withdrawal. Her innate contradictions may confuse but are also proof that she’s no rigid ideologue.
When Labrador-jowled, Hush Puppywearing Ken Clarke curmudgeonly described her as A Bloody Difficult Woman while off-air, it was not meant as a compliment. It was a lazy, sexist put-down; just as women are routinely pigeonholed as ‘feisty’ rather than ‘decisive’ or ‘shrill’ rather than ‘assertive’. But the put-down just wouldn’t be put down. Instead, to her credit, May embraced the title as only A Bloody Difficult Woman would, drily observing that, actually, we need more BDW in politics.
When I was recently sent to interview her by The Daily Telegraph, she was still front-runner in a two-horse race for the Tory leadership title. Within 72 hours, her rival Andrea Leadsom had quit the contest amid the brouhaha of ‘Mothergate’, when Leadsom preposterously intimated that May’s childlessness made her a less suitable candidate for high office.
But when I sat down with May for a one-to-one in an Oxfordshire hotel, my impression was of a Bloody Determined Woman. Not a natural performer, she is a serious – verging on grave – character who thinks before she speaks.
A workaholic who exhausts those around her with her micromanagement and isn’t keen on delegation; frankly, having seen Boris Johnson and Michael Gove scrapping for power, who can blame her? To put it another way: one man’s frosty ice maiden is another woman’s
considered strategist and any perceived male/female divide arises quite possibly from the fact that 59-year-old May does not conform to gender expectations (for which, read: she hasn’t batted her eyelashes since her hero Geoffrey Boycott scored a century at Headingley).
Where Mrs Thatcher would rustle up supper to feed her boys at late-night Cabinet meetings and at the peak of her powers flirt (oh yes) with her besotted Honourable Members, deadpan May is not one for frivolity, apart from in the footwear department. May’s shoes will doubtless now be read like runes every time she steps out of Number 10.
She is clearly self-contained and cut from her own unique cloth, but is Theresa May de facto Bloody Difficult? Let us consider the evidence.
In 2002, as the Conservative Party reeled from a second electoral drubbing by Tony Blair’s New Labour, May became its first female Chairman. She duly pulled no punches at the Tory conference when she referred to ‘the nasty party’ and said urgent change was needed. Verdict: Bloody Brave. She held posts including Shadow Secretary of State for Transport; Environment; Family; Culture, Media and Sport; Women and Equality; Work and Pensions, and was Shadow Leader of the House of Commons. Verdict: Bloody Versatile. She was then promoted to the Home Office and stayed for a record six years. Most Home Secretaries don’t last long; it is an unforgiving, gruelling job with counter-terrorism, policing, crime and immigration all areas of responsibility. When she took the job, she was the sixth holder of the position in six years. Verdict? Bloody Impressive. As Home Secretary, May drove through the most far-reaching changes to policing in a generation by replacing police authorities with 41 police and crime commissioners. In 2014, she gave such an electrifying, condemnatory speech to the Police Federation that the hall was reduced to silence. And nobody even noticed her shoes. Verdict? Bloody Outspoken. Immigration has been a thorn in the side of Government in recent years and May did not – could not – keep her 2010 pledge to bring the level of net migration below 100,000. Brexit should give her more scope in this area, but it will be a difficult balance to strike. May, who does not like failure, can be relied upon to drill right down into the details before planning a course of action. Verdict? Bloody-minded. History will, of course, judge our new PM’S leadership but, right now, her main challenge is to steer the country through the choppy waters of Brexit while keeping our own Kingdom United. And if she’s leading from the front, pushing for what she wants, perhaps it will unleash the BDW in more of us? Whether you liked or loathed Mrs Thatcher’s politics, it is impossible not to admire her grit nor to underestimate the way in which she dramatically broadened women’s horizons.
To Thatcher’s children it seemed natural to have a female boss. It would be exciting to think that, under May, a generation of ambitious Bloody Difficult Women might strive to be the boss.