Ni Made Safira M. P.

W 121711233044

Merlina Rahmawati 121711233056

Shity Murty Sari 121711233059

Fathin Arifuna 121711233068

Introduction

The Iron Lady is a 2011 historical film directed by Phyllida Lloyd that tells us the story of
British one and only female Prime Minister at that time, Margaret Tatcher. Brief summary of the
story where this movie reveals the life of Margaret Tatcher from a nobody that climbs the walls
of the male dominance world of politics, with her being a female and from a low class civilian,
she proved herself worthy to claim the position as the Prime Minister of Britain. This paper will
mainly focus on the situation where lower social class is portrayed throughout the story.

As we know that Britain is one of the country where social classes are still clearly visible until
nowadays. People are categorized into classes by their wealth and occupation. Classes that we
know that still exist are lower class, working class, middle class, and upper class. To narrow the
topic of discussion that will be thoroughly explained later, the social class is especially narrated
to none other than Margaret Tatcher herself as she was shown as once a lower-class woman with
a degree that is able to "claim" a position in the middle of the patriarch territory as well as the
higher class of what she was formerly of.

Focus of Analysis

In this paper, our focus of the analysis is the portrayal of social class in the movie.

Analysis

Wright (2005) stated that social class is an objective position defined by income, education, and
occupation. There are several scenes where we can see how social status was portrayed. In the
story, Margaret who came from the lower class was able to join the House of Commons because
of her degree from Oxford University. This is an example of how education influences people to
view other’s social status. We can see the social status difference between Margaret and Denis in
the scene where Margaret joined the dinner for the House of Commons. Margaret doesn’t seem
to know proper table manner and Dennis whispered to her how to do it properly. We can
conclude that Margaret is not aware of proper table manner due to her coming from a lower
social class, unlike Dennis who was from a higher social status. In the scene were Margaret was
proposed by Dennis, he stated that by marrying him, a businessman, she will be able to gain the
attention she needed for the vote. This proved that higher social status has more influence than
lower social status. Now from the film, we can see the rise of Margaret's social status from when
she was a low middle-class grocer's daughter who has the ambition to be just like her father and
was encouraged with ‘Never run with the crowd, Margaret. Go your own way.’ that can be
interpreted as a motivation for Margaret to do her own thing and not stay in the lower middle
class. She was accepted to Oxford University and was able to join the House of Commons. She
then became a middle class woman after marrying Dennis. She steadily rises her position in the
parliament until she became an upper class as the Prime Minister.

As Singh-Manoux (2003) said, perceptions of one’s own social class are influenced by feelings
of control, financial security, and satisfaction, which involve social comparison. In the film when
Margaret joined the dinner for the House of Commons, her ability was doubted and implicitly
mocked by those who have a higher social status because of her background. It happens because
those who have higher social status think that they are better than those who in a lower social
status than them. It matched with the theory as they have more influence, stable income, and a
better life as well.

Acker’s (2006) mentions that “‘Class’ stands for practices and relations that provide differential
access to and control over the means of provisioning and survival,”. There’s a scene in the film
where we can see that Margaret’s relationship with her mother is not very good, looking at how
her mother refused to read the university acceptance letter by saying ‘my hands are still damp’
following by Margaret’s disappointed face, and then her mother continues to wash the dishes.
Her mother’s refusal might be because she is worried about Margaret’s ability to survive since
the one that can change their social status is usually men. It is more usual for men to be the ones
to work and the prejudice of working women especially in the political field still exists.
Margaret’s mother is not very fond of the path she chooses.
Conclusion

In conclusion, social class is still very imminent in British society. Social class is determined by
wealth, education, and job. The higher the social status, the more they will feel superior to people
from lower social class. Higher social status also means better quality of life and feeling more
secure financially. People from lower class usually struggle more in the society. As British
society is also patriarchal, women are also looked down and they are still prejudiced. Margaret
is a woman and she came from the lower class, so her ability was doubted at first. However, she
was able to climb up her status by enrolling to a university, hence raising her status by education,
and then joining the House of Commons in which she raised her status even more by her
occupation. Eventually, she got a position as a prime minister and she. She also proves that a
woman can also change her social status on her own, aside from marriage.

References

Acker, Joan. 2006. Class Questions: Feminist Answers. New York: Rowman and
Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Singh-Manoux, A., Adler, N. E., & Marmot, M. G. (2003). Subjective social status: its
determinants and its association with measures of ill-health in the Whitehall II9 Study.
Social Science & Medicine, 56(6), 1321-1333
Wright, E. O. (2005). “Social class.” In G. Ritzer (Ed.), Encyclopedia of social theory. (pp. 718-
725). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. doi:
http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412952552.n270.