Meaning

The line draws a contrast between talk and action, suggesting that when real work needs to be accomplished, women are the more reliable choice. On the surface it is a compliment to women's practicality and follow-through. Read more carefully, it also carries a trace of irony: it implies that men tend to occupy the space of communication and rhetoric while women quietly get on with the substance of things.

Context

Margaret Thatcher delivered this line in a speech in 1965, before she rose to lead the Conservative Party or become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. At that stage of her career she was working to establish herself in a political world dominated almost entirely by men, and the remark can be understood partly as self-assertion. Whether she intended it as a feminist statement is debatable; Thatcher rarely described herself in feminist terms. Still, the quote took on a life of its own and has been repeated widely, often stripped of its original political setting and used simply as a general tribute to women's capability.

About the author

Margaret Thatcher served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990, the first woman to hold that office. She trained as a chemist before becoming a barrister and then a Member of Parliament. Her time in government was defined by strong economic and foreign policy positions that made her a deeply influential and equally controversial figure. She remains one of the most discussed political leaders of the twentieth century.