A party revolt was thwarted, the Tories hunkered down, and Mrs. “You turn if you want to,” she told the faltering assembly. In an address to the party, she played on the title of Christopher Fry’s popular play “The Lady’s Not for Burning” in insisting that she would press forward with her policies. “I am not a consensus politician,” she said. With electoral defeat staring them in the face, cabinet members warned, now was surely a time for compromise. Even her close advisers worried that her push to stanch inflation, sell off nationalized industry and deregulate the economy was devastating the poor, undermining the middle class and courting chaos.Īt the Conservative Party conference that month, the moderates grumbled that they were being led by a free-market ideologue oblivious to life on the street and the exigencies of realpolitik. More businesses were failing and more people were out of work than at any time since the Great Depression. In October 1980, 17 months into her first term, Mrs. But during her first years in power, even many Tories feared that her election might prove a terrible mistake. After leaving office, she was honored as Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven.
MARGARET THATCHER GIRL POWER FREE
She broke the power of the labor unions and forced the Labour Party to abandon its commitment to nationalized industry, redefine the role of the welfare state and accept the importance of the free market.Ībroad, she won new esteem for a country that had been in decline since its costly victory in World War II. Thatcher’s political successes were decisive. Even some of her strongest critics accorded her a grudging respect.Īt home, Mrs. The strong economic medicine she administered to a country sickened by inflation, budget deficits and industrial unrest brought her wide swings in popularity, culminating with a revolt among her own cabinet ministers in her final year and her shout of “No! No! No!” in the House of Commons to any further integration with Europe.īut by the time she left office, the principles known as Thatcherism - the belief that economic freedom and individual liberty are interdependent, that personal responsibility and hard work are the only ways to national prosperity, and that the free-market democracies must stand firm against aggression - had won many disciples. Hard-driving and hardheaded, she led her Conservative Party to three straight election wins and held office for 11 years - May 1979 to November 1990 - longer than any other British politician in the 20th century. Thatcher was the first woman to become prime minister of Britain and the first to lead a major Western power in modern times. A statement from the White House said that “the world has lost one of the great champions of freedom and liberty, and America has lost a true friend.” Prime Minister David Cameron cut short a visit to Continental Europe to return to Britain after receiving the news, and Queen Elizabeth II authorized a ceremonial funeral with military honors - a notch below a state funeral - at St. She had been in poor health for months and had suffered from dementia. Her spokesman, Tim Bell, said she died of a stroke at the Ritz Hotel.
Overall, it is concluded that Thatcher was a polarising figure whose legacy is one of much divisiveness, in which the divisions between women is only one of many strands.Margaret Thatcher, the “Iron Lady” of British politics, who set her country on a rightward economic course, led it to victory in the Falklands war and helped guide the United States and the Soviet Union through the cold war’s difficult last years, died on Monday in London. Yet for some women, such as the Spice Girls, she was the pioneer of their ideology of girl power. The hard ladder up which she had climbed was drawn up and not extended to other women. It is suggested that although Thatcher had to struggle against many of the sexist prejudices of her day to achieve her political ambitions, she was no feminist. Overall, it is concluded that Thatcher was a polarising figure whose legacy is one of much divisiveness, in which the divisions between women is only one of many strands.ĪB - This article considers the legacy for women of Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013), Britain's first and to date only woman prime minister. N2 - This article considers the legacy for women of Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013), Britain's first and to date only woman prime minister. T1 - What Was Margaret Thatcher's Legacy for Women?