Margaret Thatcher - First Woman PM Of UK

Dame Margaret Thatcher passed away at 87 on April 8, 2013.

She will go down in history as a great female head of government and world leader.

She will always be an iconic British leader as the country's first woman Prime Minister.

Here is Wikipedia's entry on her.

Margaret Hilda Thatcher (13 October, 1925 – 8 April, 2013), was the longest-serving (1979–1990) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of the 20th century, and the only woman ever to have held the post.

She was nicknamed the Iron Lady because of her uncompromising leadership style.

Originally a research chemist before becoming a barrister, Thatcher was elected Member of Parliament (MP) in 1959.

She became a cabinet minister of Prime Minister Edward Heath.

She became Prime Minister after winning the 1979 general election.

After entering 10 Downing Street, Thatcher introduced a series of political and economic initiatives to reverse what she perceived to be Britain's precipitous 'national decline'.

Her political philosophy and economic policies emphasised deregulation (particularly of the financial sector), flexible labour markets, the privatisation of state-owned companies, and reducing the power and influence of trade unions.

However, the income gap between the rich and poor widened, and the UK advocated an aggressive anti-socialist foreign policy which not only confronted the Soviet Union and China but also left leaning freedom fighters and democrats in the developing countries such as Nelson Mandela of South Africa and Sam Nujoma of Namibia.

Thatcher was born Margaret Roberts in Grantham, Lincolnshire.

Her father was Alfred Roberts, originally from Northamptonshire, and her mother was Beatrice Stephenson from Lincolnshire.

She spent her childhood in Grantham, where her father owned two grocery shops.

Her father was active in the Methodist church, serving as an alderman.

He was Mayor of Grantham in 1945–46.

Thatcher is survived by two children, Carol and Sir Mark, and two grand children (Mark's children). Her husband Sir Denis Thatcher (whom she married in 1951) passed away in 2003.