Quote: In politics, if you want anything said ask a man, if you want anything done ask a woman (Margaret Thatcher 1965 May 20)

[Garson O'Toole]

I have checked the Oxford University Press CD-ROM compilation of the
public statements of Margaret Thatcher, and the quotation is present
in an entry dated 1965. The CD-ROM was designed for an old version of
the Windows operating system, circa 1999, but I was able to install it
and access the database on an old Windows XP machine. Here is the
description on the CD-ROM of the entry for the speech:

Theme(s): Women, Law and order, Economy – employment, Famous statements
Venue(s): Albert Hall
Source(s): (1) National Union of Townswomen's Guilds Annual Report
1965, pp8-9 (2) Evening News, 20 May 1965
Editorial notes: 1400. MT spoke on the theme "Woman – No Longer a
Satellite". The editors are grateful to the Townswomen's Guilds and to
their archivist, Gillian Preston, in particular.

Based on this description the CD-ROM is using two sources. The first
source is the "National Union of Townswomen's Guilds Annual Report",
and the second source is "Evening News, 20 May 1965". The first source
gives a summary of the speech, and it does not contain the famous
quotation. The second source does give the famous quote. Here is the
information from the CD-ROM:

[(2) Evening News, 20 May 1965]
Page one quote
[Theme: Women • Famous statements]
“In politics, if you want anything said ask a man, if you want
anything done ask a woman.”—Mrs. Margaret Thatcher, Cons MP for
Finchley, speaking to the National Council of the Townwomen's Guilds
in London this afternoon.

So, the quote is supposed to be located on page one of "Evening News"
dated 1965 May 20. It is possible that "Evening News" refers to "The
Evening News" of London. Wikipedia says, "After financial struggles
and falling sales it was eventually merged with its long-time rival
the Evening Standard in 1980." Hence, "The Evening News" was still
operating on the date of the speech in 1965. Here is a link to the
Wikipedia entry for "The Evening News":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Evening_News_%28London_newspaper%29

The general editor of the CD-ROM collection of Margaret Thatcher
speeches is Christopher Collins. He might be able to decisively
indicate the identity of the "Evening News". Maybe the National
Council of the Townwomen's Guild can scan the newspaper page if they
have it in their files.

A note about the 1965 speech appears at the Margaret Thatcher
Foundation website. (See the link below) The note says that the "The
Evening News report of this speech is the origin of a phrase often
attributed to her: 'In politics, if you want anything said ask a man,
if you want anything done ask a woman.'" However, the full entry is
not available online. It is only available on the CD-ROM.

http://www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=101374

I hope that this data is useful for updating the Yale Book of
Quotations, the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations and other scholarly
references. Thanks for the challenge.

Garson O'Toole

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