Margaret Thatcher became the United Kingdom’s first female prime minister in 1979; Theresa May becomes its second. Some things are still the same 37 years later. (Queen Elizabeth still rules the roost in Buckingham Palace, for example.) But here’s what has changed for women worldwide between 1979 and now:
Who’s in charge?
Thatcher was one of only two elected women running a country when she became prime minister in 1979. There had been others before her elsewhere in the world — Indira Gandhi of India and Golda Meir in Israel, for example — and there have been dozens since. But even now, a very small number of countries have women in charge.
Is it any better if we look at lawmakers?
The number of countries run by women is still pretty low, but the percentage of women in parliaments and congresses around the world is steadily creeping up. There were so few women in parliaments in 1979 that the Inter-Parliamentary Union doesn’t even have statistics going back that far, but since they started tracking the information in 1997, the number of female lawmakers has risen from about one in ten worldwide to just over one in five.
For the record, Margaret Thatcher was one of just 19 women in the British House of Commons when she became prime minister – and there are more male members of Parliament now than there have ever been female MPs.
So is anything getting better for women?
Yes. The average number of births per women worldwide has fallen steadily for decades. Experts use that statistic as a rough guide for how much control women have over their own lives. The fewer children a woman has, the greater control she is probably exercising.
What about education?
More good news here. In 1979, there were nearly 80 million school-age girls around the world who were not going to school. The number now is less than half that, even as the total global population has increased by 60%.
And women still live longer than men, right?
Yes. Life expectancy for both men and women is rising, with women living about five years longer than men both then and now.
But they’re not getting paid as much as men, are they?
Not by a long way. Globally, women are only paid 52% of what men are paid, according to the World Economic Forum. The organization has only been tracking the gender gap for 10 years, but the Economic Policy Institute compared pay in the United States in 1979 and now. Back then, American women earned about two-thirds of when men did. Now, it’s a little over 80%.
So, overall, what’s the takeaway for women?
Turn to the pop charts for inspiration. The best-selling single by a woman in the U.K. this year is Sia’s “Cheap Thrills.” Back in 1979, it was a prediction for women that Gloria Gaynor got right: “I Will Survive.”
