preview

Essay on Margaret Hilda Thatcher

Good Essays

Margaret Hilda Thatcher

Margaret Hilda Thatcher's overwhelming sense of self-confidence and ambition ruled her life from the time she was a small child in Grantham, though her Oxford years and during her early years in politics. It led her to become the first female Prime Minister of Great Britain, and also helped through her difficult political years as "Attila the Hun".
Britain's first female Prime Minister was born on October 13, 1925 in a small room over a grocer's shop in Grandham, England. Margaret Hilda was the second daughter of Alfred and Beatrice Roberts. She often stated that she was brought up very strictly:

I owe everything in my life to two things: a …show more content…

She enjoyed the tough verbal conflict of parliamentary debates. She had a quick mind and an even quicker tongue, along with an enormous self-confidence. She liked to fight and liked to win.
In 1975, the Conservatives were the first party in Britain to chose a woman as leader and potential Prime Minister:

It was the backbenchers, not the Leader, or his Shadow Cabinet, who forced a ballot, and it was a backbenchers- candidate who emerged triumphant from it.
When the election was announced on January 23, and in the first ballot Margaret had the support of only one member of a Shadow Cabinet of 23 she was regarded with suspicion by most of those managing the party machine at Central Office, and opposed by many in the National Union. In short, she was an anti- establishment candidate. Her campaign manager was a backbencher, backbenchers of varying shades of opinion made up her campaign committee who voted decisively for change(Gardiner, 1975, p.204).

In May 1979, Thatcher became the first female Prime Minister of Great
Britain. Her party won again in 1983 and 1987. Thatcher resigned as Prime
Minister and leader of the Conservative Party in November 1990, after loosing the support of the party. She remained in the House of Commons until 1992. In the same year, Thatcher was made a Baroness by the queen and became a member of the House of Lords.
Abse, author of

Get Access