"Most of the decade covered here was under the premiership of Margaret Thatcher, the first woman Prime Minister. The policies she oversaw — the privatisation of state-owned enterprises, the sale of public housing to tenants, the cuts to education and health — gave us plenty to protest about, added to which were the 1984 miners' strike and the 1989 poll tax. Women played a pivotal role in all of these, but above all it was the peace and anti-nuclear movement that was headed and energised by women, from CND actions to Greenham Common, the Falklands and the Gulf War. At the same time women were challenging a sexist culture and inequality at work."