Margaret Thatcher

1925-2013. British politician. Member of the Conservative Party. First female British Prime Minister (1979-1990).

Biography

On 13 October 1925 Margaret Hilda Roberts was born in Grantham, the second daughter of Beatrice Stephenson Roberts and Alderman Alfred Roberts. Her father was a prosperous merchant and became the Mayor of Grantham. After studying at the Somerville College in Oxford she became a research chemist. In 1951 she married a wealthy businessman, Denis Thatcher, and started studying law. After two years of marriage she gave birth to twins named Carol and Mark. Thatcher became Member of Parliament for the Conservatives in 1959 (representing Fichley). In 1975, she was became leader of the Conservative Party. After the general election in 1979, she became the first female British Prime Minister. She had to resign in 1990. In 1992, she was made a baroness and entered the House of Lords. She died of a stroke 8 April 2013 in London.

Thatcher`s Terms as Prime Minister

Margaret Thatcher is associated with strength and strictness. She was determined to end Consensus politics. In 1979 she was faced with the problem of high oil prices and low currency of the British pound. Moreover she had to deal with high unemployment rates and poverty. Her reaction to the economic crisis was a series of neoliberal reforms and a strict anti-Trade Union policies.

Towards the end of her first term of office, she sent troops to fight in the Falklands War (against Argentina) in 1982. The point that the offensive operation was successful may be one of the reasons why she won the election in 1983. In 1984 the miners went on strike and Thatcher attacked them as "enemies within". In 1990 when Thatcher resigned, John Major became Prime Minister. After her resignation she founded the Thatcher Foundation that aims at political and economic freedom of Britain. In 1991 she got the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Thatcher`s Policy

Thatcherism combines neoliberal ideas about the economy with traditional conservative ideas about society. Thatcher aimed at reducing social benefits. Lowering taxes (especially of higher incomes), spending, replacing what she called the “dependency culture” with an “enterprise culture” (others denounced this as replacing caring and solidarity by greed), privatising state-owned industries and utilities (e.g. British Rail, British Telecom, British Gas, British Airways), cutting welfare benefits, fighting against the influence of Trade Unions are some examples of her politics. She was sceptical of Britain`s integration into the European Union and took also an inconsiderate attitude towards the Soviet Union, for which she got the name of “the Iron Lady“. There was a privileged relationship between Thatcher and US-President Reagan.

Bibliography

Gomoll, Kimberly. "Margaret Thatcher". www.womeninworldhistory.com/imow-Thatcher.pdf. (accessed 3 June 2017).

"Margaret Thatcher: Timeline". The Independent, 8 April 2013. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/margaret-thatchers-timeline-from-grantham-to-the-house-of-lords-via-arthur-scargill-and-the-8564555.html (accesssed 8 June 2017).

Thatcher, Margaret. The Downing Street Years. London: HarperCollins, 1993.