Woman's Hour Balloon Debate

In the balloon

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  Margaret Thatcher (1925 - )

  Watch Louise Bagshawe MP advocate for Margaret Thatcher

  The only woman to have served as British Prime Minister, winning three successive General Elections to hold office for eleven years. A powerful force on the international stage, the Soviets dubbed her the "Iron Lady". She was one of the dominant political figures of the 20th century with Thatcherism having a major influence on politics. The daughter of a grocer, upon her election as PM she said she owed "almost everything" to her father. Baroness Thatcher now sits in the House of Lords.

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  Advocate: Louise Bagshawe, novelist and Conservative MP

  Louise Bagshawe is a best-selling author who has just entered Parliament as the Conservative MP for Corby and East Northamptonshire. She joined the Conservative Party at the age of 14 after being inspired by the then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher - a woman she describes as "standing out like a beacon". She started her career in the record industry but left after publishing her first novel, 'Career Girls' in her 20s. She went on to publish 11 more novels, the latest entitled 'Sparkles', 'Glamour', 'Glitz, 'Passion' and 'Desire'.

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  Barbara Castle (1910-2002)

  Watch Caroline Flint MP advocate for Barbara Castle

  Known as Labour's Red Queen not only for her flame coloured hair but for her trail-blazing for women in politics. A campaigner throughout her political life, she was the architect of legislation in the 1970s giving women the rights to equal pay with men. On her death, Tony Blair described her as "an extraordinary pioneer for women in politics". To an admirer who asked why she was never prime minister, she replied: "They wouldn't have me, darling, because I'm a woman."

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  Advocate: Caroline Flint MP and former Labour minister

  Caroline Flint served as a minister in Gordon Brown's government. Her resignation last summer grabbed the headlines when she accused the Prime Minister of treating women attending Cabinet meetings as "little more than female window dressing". She was one of 101 Labour women elected to parliament in 1997. In 2003 she got her first ministerial job, and proving herself an able performer, moved swiftly through the ranks to become Housing then Europe Minister. She was re-elected MP for Don Valley in May.

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  Emmeline Pankhurst (1858-1928)

  Watch Shami Chakrabarti advocate for Emmeline Pankhurst

  Pankhurst was a leading activist in fighting for women's rights in Britain. She attended her first suffrage meeting aged 14 and went on to set up the Women's Social and Political Union with her daughters to campaign for the right for women to vote. As a figurehead for the suffragette movement she was responsible for increasing militancy among supporters. Her actions led to her being repeatedly imprisoned where she went on hunger strike. She died in 1928, the year that women gained the same voting rights as men.

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  Advocate: Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty

  Shami Chakrabarti is Director of the campaign group Liberty. A barrister by training, she worked as a lawyer in the Home Office under both Conservative and Labour governments. She joined Liberty in 2001, becoming its director two years later. A powerful advocate of human rights and civil liberties, she has a high profile as a broadcaster and in print. In 2007 she was appointed CBE for services to human rights. Among her other roles she is Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University, and a Governor of the London School of Economics.

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  Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797)

  Watch Prof. Mary Beard advocate for Mary Wollstonecraft

  Viewed by many as the "mother of feminism". In 1792 she wrote her great work, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, in which she extended the Enlightenment idea of the "rights of man" to women and laid the groundwork for women's liberation. She stressed the importance of education and female autonomy. "Strengthen the female mind by enlarging it", she said, "and there will be an end to blind obedience." Although her revolutionary views led her to be dubbed "a hyena in petticoats", she continued to intrigue and inspire generations that followed.

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  In Our Time

  Advocate: Mary Beard, Professor of Classics at Cambridge University

  Mary Beard is Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge and a fellow of Newnham College. She is also Classics Editor of the Times Literary Supplement, and her many books, articles and media appearances have led to her being called 'Britain's best-known classicist'. In her blog for Times online, entitled "A don's life", she describes herself as "a wickedly subversive commentator on both the modern and the ancient world." The most recent of her books are 'The Roman Triumph' (2007) and 'Pompeii: the life of a Roman Town' (2008), which is being made into a BBC series.