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Both Lady Thatcher's roots and her relationship with husband Denis heavily influenced her rise to power. Her career really took off in 1949 when she was short-listed for the un-winnable constituency of Dartford. She made the most of her chance and secured the nomination in the 1950 General Election. It was here that she met with Denis Thatcher and subsequently became engaged. Denis, a man whose views were no-nonsense Conservatism, provided her with both the name and vast moral and financial support during her campaigning. However she made little mention of this financial support and maintained the image of "a grocer's daughter". In her hometown of Grantham she had regularly worked for her father and gone to Sunday school, endowing her with the appearance of a God-fearing, hard-working citizen daughter of a traditional Liberal who became a loyal Conservative. Thatcher said, "What I learned in Grantham ensured that criticisms of capitalism came up against the reality of my own experience". Her position was further empowered by her gender. There were only 7 women in contrast to 246 men sitting on the Conservative parliamentary benches in "66. This, alongside her ability, more or less guaranteed her a place in the Heath Cabinet, even if it was only as "the token woman. Her advance to position of leader was relatively sudden. Being a leading Cabinet minister, she seemed the appropriate successor of Heath following the failures of the government, which would lead to surges in inflation under successive labour rule. Thatcher blamed the fall in support of the Conservatives during the election on Edward Heath taking the Party into a centrist position.
In contrast, Thatcher described her period in government as "the politics of conviction" (Dictionary of Politics) and was in stark contrast to the consensual approach of previous Parties. Instead of bowing to the public on every matter, she and her government transferred some of that power away from them and in doing so empowered themselves at times of decision making.