Not everyone suffered under Thatcher's government. However, her grit and determination prevailed and her famous " the lady's not for turning" speech at the Conservative Party Conference in 1980 left her critics in no doubt as to her vision and strength of her will. Having inherited a poor, failing economy, her solutions were harsh and difficult to bear for the poor and disadvantaged in society. In 1979, Thatcher became not only Britain's first woman prime minister, but the first woman to govern a western democracy.Īdvocating for people to be less dependent on the state and more able to make their own choices, her policies were bold and controversial in equal measure increasing indirect taxes and reducing contributions from government. (Image credit: Owen Franken/Corbis via Getty Images) Prime Minister Thatcher The nickname followed her throughout the rest of her career and long after.īritish prime minister candidate Margaret Thatcher speaks at a podium in an arena during the 1979 parliamentary election. A Soviet newspaper story about the speech referred to Thatcher as the "Iron Lady," according to the Margaret Thatcher Foundation. In January 1976, Thatcher delivered a speech at Kensington Town Hall in London, and spoke about the Iron Curtain - the political boundary that separated Europe during World War II. In 1975, she was elected as the Conservative Party leader and Leader of the Opposition, making her the first woman to lead a major political party in Britain, according to the Margaret Thatcher Foundation. She was so upset by the negative response that she almost left politics.īut she persisted, and as Heath's government struggled through the 1970s, Thatcher began to emerge as a political leader. However, government papers revealed later that Thatcher opposed the decision to stop the program, but was forced to go through with it by the Treasury, according to The Independent. Many people began to see her as an enemy of the health and wellbeing of the nation's future, and the phrase "Mrs.
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Thatcher's popularity in her Cabinet role continued to decline when she abolished free milk for school children over seven years old as part of the government's broader effort to cut spending. There were supporters and detractors of comprehensive schools, but at the heart of the criticism was the belief that it underpinned class-based society and stifled aspiration, especially in the poorer disadvantaged areas. During her time in office she oversaw the expansion of comprehensive schools, which are secondary schools that welcome all students rather than selecting students based on academics or wealth, as grammar schools do. Her first role as a top government official came in 1970, when Prime Minister Edward Heath appointed Thatcher to his Cabinet as Secretary of State for Education and Science. For the next decade, she served in a variety of political posts, consistently attracting attention for being a young woman in politics and for her sometimes controversial views, such as her support for capital punishment. (Image credit: Rust/ullstein bild via Getty Images) Her rise in politicsĪfter failing to be selected as the Conservative candidate for the 1955 by-election to replace Sir Waldron Smithers, a Conservative MP who had died, Thatcher took a step back from politics to focus on raising her two-year-old twin children, according to John Campbell's book " Margaret Thatcher Volume One: The Grocer's Daughter" (Johnathan Cape, 2000).įinally, in 1959, after a challenging campaign, Thatcher was elected as the Conservative MP for the county of Finchley. Margaret Thatcher at a meeting of the Christian Democratic Union in Hannover, Germany in 1976. Nonetheless, the two stayed in touch and married on Dec. Margaret thought Denis was "nice," but wasn't swept off her feet by any means, according to a report by The Telegraph. In 1949, soon after being selected as a Member of Parliament (MP) candidate, Thatcher (still Roberts at that time) met Denis Thatcher, a World War II veteran and successful businessman, who had just recently divorced.
She lost both times but stood out among her competition as the youngest and only woman candidate, according to John Blundell's biography " Margaret Thatcher: A Portrait of the Iron Lady" (Algora, 2008).
Then, in the 19 general elections, she was the Conservative candidate for a Labour seat in Parliament. Unperturbed, she continued her career as a chemist while satisfying her appetite for politics by joining the local Conservative Association.
In 1948 she applied for a job at Imperial Chemical Industries, but was denied because she was "headstrong, obstinate and dangerously self-opinionated," according to a BBC article. After graduating, Thatcher worked as a chemist for BX Plastics in Colchester, Essex.
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