Margaret Thatcher: Lawyer, Mother, Parliament and Prime Minister
Born in 1925 in Lincolnshire England, Margaret Thatcher attended Oxford University during the height of World War Two, losing two back-to-back elections for Parliament before earning her law degree in 1954.
Lawyer, Mother, and Member of Parliament
After practicing law and raising two twins with wealthy businessman Denis Thatcher, her third run for Parliament proved successful in 1959, where she undertook a war against wasteful government spending that would become a common theme throughout her political career.
She then moved on to other ministerial posts including undersecretary in the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance, followed by secretary of education and science in 1970, where she earned the nickname “Thatcher the milk snatcher” after she eliminated a free milk program for schoolchildren.
Margaret Thatcher Becomes Prime Minister
In 1975, she defeated former Prime Minister Edward Heath to take control of the Conservative Party leadership, becoming the first woman in British history to become the Leader of the Opposition. Assuming her first term as Prime Minister in 1979, Margaret Thatcher’s Cold War stance against the Soviet Union’s, in her words, “bent on world dominance,” she earned the nickname “Iron Lady” by the Soviet army newspaper—a moniker that would follow her for the rest of her life.
During her time in office—from 1979 to 1990—Thatcher lowered income taxes by increasing the sales tax rate, sold off public housing, while privatizing state-owned companies such as British Telecom, British Gas, British Airways and Rolls-Royce, at the same time successfully defending the Falkland Islands from Argentinian invaders.
She also oversaw the return of Hong Kong to the Chinese, before winning a third term in office in 1987, until she was lost a confidence challenge on November 14th, 1990, by former Defense Minister Michael Heseltine. After she gained assurances from Parliament that John Major, not Heseltine, would follow her as Prime Minister, she stepped down as Prime Minister on November 28th, ending her long career in public service.
She passed away from a stroke on April 8th, 2013 at 87 years of age, making Margaret Thatcher one of the most powerful women in 20th-century world history.