The Iron Lady’s Legacy: The Unwilling Icon By: Claire Parsons
P H OTO B Y G E T TY I MAGE S
THE OBSERVER
If you asked Margaret Hilda Thatcher if she ever thought she would one day be one of the UK’s longest serving Prime Ministers she would have considered you delusional. The Oxford chemistry student, born in 1925, was an exemplary student from her very first day of classes. She then went on to study for the bar while she simultaneously worked as a chemist after graduation. Only after serving as a successful tax law barrister did she decide to go into politics. In modern times, Thatcher would be considered an early star, one to watch, a bright young woman in STEM with an interest in economic policy with the work ethic to match. She was everything the feminist movement of her era wished for her to be. This is, of course, where things get complicated as Margaret Thatcher was anything but a feminist. Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister at the beginning of the second wave of feminism and it would last far past her tenure. As she unpacked her suitcase into Downing street, women across the world were advocating for an equal shot at careers and opportunities while a woman was sitting in one of the most important offices in the world. One of the most prominent slogans of the second wave was that “the personal is political”. As such, the election of Margaret Thatcher and the Tories she represented should have been considered a massive win for the movement. It was, yet in many respects, it wasn’t. Margaret Thatcher’s political legacy is divided on partisan lines, understandable for a politician of PAGE 26
