Why the Woman’s Hour power list is as daft as the second Bridget Jones film

To mark its 70th birthday, Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour has released a definitive version of its annual power list, choosing “the seven women who’ve made the biggest impact on women’s lives over the last 70 years”. For the first time, women who are no longer alive were considered, as were women from outside the UK, if their impact could be demonstrated here. It is a loose set of guidelines, but the panel – including The Apprentice star and businesswoman Karren Brady and screenwriter Abi Morgan – have really gone to town with the brief. The results are in: Margaret Thatcher, Bridget Jones, Germaine Greer and Beyoncé are among those who have had the greatest impact on the lives of British women today.

To claim the Power List as a definitive ranking of anything is as daft as the second Bridget Jones film. Lists such as this have an impact only if they are divisive and provocative – and nothing says “Let’s celebrate women” like getting people to argue about how rubbish some women are.

Inevitably, there will be debate around even the most obvious inclusions because, in some cases, these are controversial figures. Yes, Thatcher symbolises the attainability of female power, but the former prime minister was notoriously indifferent to advancing other women (“What did Margaret Thatcher do for women? Nothing,” wrote Woman’s Hour presenter Jenni Murray in 2013). Yes, Greer wrote an iconic feminist tract, but she is supportive of women only if they don’t happen to be trans women. The Bridget Jones films, directed by a woman and based on books written by a woman, are some of the most underrated British comedies of recent times – but the books are dated and the idea that she is some sort of template for modern womanhood is an anachronism at best.

The list also includes, and draws attention to the work of, Barbara Castle, who introduced the Equal Pay Act; Helen Brook, who set up the Brook Advisory Service, offering contraceptive advice to unmarried women; and Jayaben Desai, who campaigned against low pay for female and immigrant workers in the 1970s. Naturally, they have been squeezed in to leave space for a fictitious diarist obsessed with calories and an outstanding pop star who certainly made my life better for the two hours of paradise that was her last arena show, but whose contribution to British women’s daily existence may not be the most significant we’ve seen since 1946.

Still, it is a shame that some of these women are no longer with us, because I would love to see this list come together to discuss what exactly is going wrong in Britain today, and how to fix things such as the pay gap and discrimination. Because, between them, I have no doubt that Beyoncé and Barbara Castle could hammer it all out.