Leading the Sixties: Masculinities of Party-Political Leadership in 1960s Britain

This chapter explores the masculine identities associated with and seen as fit for positions of party political leadership in 1960s Britain. It traces key developments and shifts during this decade, from more aristocratic patrician models of leadership associated with the incumbent Conservative Party (Harold Macmillan, Alec Douglas Home) to more protean and image-aware models of leadership exemplified by Labour leader and Prime Minister Harold Wilson. Wilson’s selective and strategic deployment of working-class signifiers can be compared to the first Conservative leader of more humble origins, Edward Heath, who sought to project a businesslike classlessness in his public image. However, Heath would be shadowed by concerns relating to his bachelor status which presented numerous problems in terms of his supposed relatability. This succession of male political leaders offers a different kind of case study for considering 1960s masculinity, tending towards the older and the staider rather than the more flamboyant icons of pop culture associated with the period.