This book examines the political lives and contributions of Margaret Bondfield Ellen Wilkinson
Barbara Castle Judith Hart and Shirley Williams the only five women to achieve Cabinet rank
in a Labour Government from the party's creation until Blair became Prime Minister. Paula
Bartley brings together newly discovered archival material and published work to provide a
survey of these women all of whom managed to make a mark out of all proportion to their
numbers. Charting their ideas characters and formative influences Bartley provides an
account of their rise to power analysing their contribution to policy making and assessing
their significance and reputation. She shows that these women were not a homogeneous group but
came from diverse family backgrounds entered politics in their own discrete way and rose to
power at different times. Some were more successful than others but despite their diversity
these women shared one thing in common: they all functioned in a male world.
