THE 1980s under Margaret Thatcher marked a regressive period for working-class people as a whole — and women in particular.

The conditions were laid down for a savage assault on the public sector. Competitive tendering was laid out in the provision of domestic, catering and laundering services, which led to the super-exploitation of outsourced hospital workers that we see today.

Monetarist policies, economic deregulation, the slashing of social security, privatisation of public services and anti-union legislation had a devastating impact through deindustrialisation and unemployment rose to three  million. State benefits including child benefit were cut and child poverty doubled as Thatcher attacked working mothers for “raising a creche generation.”