Thatcher, Margaret

Political leader Margaret Hilda Thatcher (neé Roberts, born October 13, 1925) was the first woman to lead a major Western democracy. The British prime minister between 1979 and 1990, Thatcher won three successive general elections as leader of the Conservative Party. An intensely controversial figure in Britain, she is renowned for her right-leaning reforms of United Kingdom (UK) economic and foreign policy. During her time in office, she achieved a high international profile, being associated in particular with the Ronald Reagan administration.

Thatcher had a profound and lasting impact on British politics. Many critics claim that her economic policies were socially divisive and extremely destructive to core institutions and national infrastructure. Conversely, her proponents argue that Thatcher's trade union reforms, privatization and deregulation agenda, and her ...