As part of its relaunch this year, the National Portrait Gallery has attempted to redress its gender imbalance by commissioning a seven-panel mural featuring 133 of the greatest women from British history. Unveiled yesterday, the mural features a range of famous figures including Maureen Colquhoun, the first openly lesbian MP, Diane Abbott, Britain’s first black female MP and suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst.
But one omission has raised eyebrows. Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s first woman prime minister, is nowhere to be seen. Conservative MP Andrea Jenkyns says the mural “fails to capture one of our nation’s most successful daughters,” adding “great British women come from every background, political party and corner of our country.”
