Author, journalist and daughter of Margaret Thatcher,

Carol Thatcher official

fifth edition of Santander WomenNOWthe women’s congress of Vocento, in full display of interesting stories, reflections and anecdotes about the public and private figure of her mother that year

the tenth anniversary of his death.

“Her legacy is very enduring,” she replied to the director of Santander WomenNOW and Mujer Hoy magazine,

Lourdes Garzon, at the beginning of the interview on the Summit stage. “It still amazes me when I open a newspaper in England and read comments about what he did, whatever it was, even using the words. As he left 10 Downing Street he stepped back and said: ‘I left England in much better shape than I found myself when I started as Prime Minister.’

“She is the first woman to hold the position, I think her achievements speak for themselves,” he added. “He left thinking he would never see a woman in that position again as long as he lived.” And he didn’t, but he saw a lot of progress, says Carol Thatcher. “When she came to power in 1979 she was also the first woman in Parliament, in 2019 there were already 220 women. It’s a clear contrast to how women want to not only run for these positions, but win.”

When Margaret Thatcher became

“the most powerful woman in the world” Carol is 20 years old, but that doesn’t surprise her. “It was gradual, it didn’t happen overnight,” he recalls. «When I was in university, my mother was already the Minister of Education and my friends told me ‘we are going to demonstrate to get your mother out of office.’ If I come out to show, the relationship with my mother will not improve,” he laughed.

Although, on the contrary, the writer has always been very close to his mother. She told Santander WomenNOW that even, as long as

Margaret Thatcher’s three terms, instead going to some formal dinners and functions. In the one he remembers, for example, he coincides with the King of Spain. “They must be from Mallorca, because they have beautiful tan skin, and we all look sick because of how pale we are,” he said.

And he continues with an anecdote about how

returned the glasses to Gorbachev in time for him to read his speech. Or when “My mom hasn’t paid her taxes” slips and she accidentally becomes a tabloid protagonist. “Sometimes I’m also an embarrassing princess,” she admits with a laugh.

But these are isolated cases, according to Carol Thatcher, l

political life and family life he is very detached at home. The proof was his father’s “absolute wisdom” as the First Knight. “Something the other empresses should learn,” she said. And he never told her about his meeting with the queen, for example. “I am part of his family, not his job or his political cabinet,” he said.

As a mother “she was demanding too”, and as a woman, professional and more than as a prime minister, she always looked up to him.

I’m Not a Demonstration Feminist, he said, but “he spoke with facts.” “He said if you want something, ask a man, if you want something done, ask a woman. It normalized women’s success in the 1970s and 1980s.” “She was a true pioneer in her own style” who “regretted not following through so she could finish the job she had started.”

not raise

following in her mother’s footsteps into politics? Lourdes Garzón asked him to finish. “No, of course, no, Thatcher is enough,” he replied with a laugh. “And thankfully I have had a very interesting career.”

Santander WomenNOW, women’s leadership congress

Consolidated as the most important conference on women’s leadership in Europe, Santander WomenNOW is an annual international summit attended by more than 150 distinguished speakers and has surpassed two million reproductions of its conferences, interviews and roundtables. The fifth edition of the congress, which has the support of Banco Santander as a Global Partner and sponsorship of Cepsa, Citroën, Heineken, Iberia, Inditex, L’Oréal Paris, Multiópticas and Novartis, was held in

Beatriz Auditorium in Madrid and broadcast live via mujerhoy.com, but also on all Vocento group newspapers, including abc.es, elcorreo.com, diariovasco.com and lasprovincias.es.