Women rise to the top in Brexit Britain
 

LONDON: A wave of women are taking power in Britain: the country will soon have a female prime minister following the Brexit vote while Scotland and **rthern Ireland already have women leaders.

“Is this all a happy coincidence? Has the glass ceiling finally been smashed?” the Guardian newspaper asked this week.

In the race to succeed David Cameron, who resigned as premier after last month’s vote to leave the EU, one thing has been certain since Thursday -- the next leader will be a woman for the first time since Margaret Thatcher resigned in 1990.

Conservative party members must **w choose between interior minister Theresa May and energy minister Andrea Leadsom.

In Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon is first minister and leader of the pro-independence Scottish National Party since 2014, while Ruth Davidson leads the Conservatives and Kezia Dugdale heads up Labour.

In **rthern Ireland, the first minister is Arlene Foster of the Democratic Unionists while one of Wales’ main parties, Plaid Cymru, is also led by a woman, Leanne Wood.

“That suggests that what might have been barriers to high ****** have completely evaporated,” Professor Iain Begg of the London School of Eco**mics told AFP.

Thatcher, who became Conservative leader in 1975 and prime minister in 1979, who opened the door for the current generation.

Her rise to power came nearly 60 years after the first woman took her seat in the House of Commons -- Conservative Nancy Astor in 1919.

“She (Thatcher) was the one who broke the mould and made it possible in future for other women to become leaders,” Begg added.

The Conservatives have been slower than the main opposition Labour to recruit large numbers of women MPs, though.

In 1997, they only had 13, including May. By 2005, the figure stood at 17 and today the figure is 68 out of 330.

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