The Modern Woman is Superwoman: Madonna and Margaret Thatcher Are Just Two Examples

They have little in common but Madonna and Margaret Thatcher are powerful role models for modern women, who are the first generation to take their careers for granted.

Is it true that women have never had it so good? In many ways, yes, particularly young women in Europe and the United States who are feeling their strength and flexing their muscles in all areas of life. As the American feminist Naomi Wolf puts it in her book, Fire With Fire: It is no longer necessary for women to ask anyone's permission for social equality...

For a start, this is the first generation of women who are taking their careers for granted. They are pushing up from the bottom - in Britain, women now make up nearly half of all medical students and a third of law students, and young girls are out-performing boys at all levels of school education - and they are shoving into the top, editing national newspapers and sitting as the Speaker of the House of Commons.

This new-found strength comes partly from economic necessity. Once the typical European family relied on one salary, almost invariably the male one, but now most couples need two wage-packets to sustain their standard of living. Today, only 10% of families in Britain are supported by the father alone.

Apart from economic changes spurring them on and lively feminist debate marking out new goals and strategies, what women need in order to realise their full potential is an inspiring range of role models. And these need not be self-consciously feminist.

Although Madonna's star might be on the wane in Britain and America, let us not underestimate her influence. Here is someone who is completely in control of her life, her art, her performances.

Another female icon whose power has swept through women's imaginations is Margaret Thatcher.

She is not an icon that is easy to cope with. Just as with Madonna, she goes against the grain of most traditional images of female power. But by breaking through the male cordons of the British establishment she has made sure that never again can a woman's ability to run a democratic country be questioned just because she is a woman.

Of course, we do not have to look just to Britain and America for such images of female power. Pakistan, Canada, Ireland and Turkey have all had female leaders and countless more women are coming up the ladder behind them.