Portal:University of Oxford/Selected biography/7

Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. As of 2013, she is the only woman to have held either post. Born in Grantham in Lincolnshire, England, she read chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford and later trained as a barrister. She won a seat in the 1959 general election, as MP for Finchley. When Edward Heath formed a government in 1970, he appointed Thatcher Secretary of State for Education and Science. In 1975, she became leader of the Conservative Party. At the 1979 general election she became Britain's first female Prime Minister, determined to reverse what she perceived as a precipitate national decline. Amid a recession and high unemployment, Thatcher's popularity decreased, though economic recovery and the 1982 Falklands War brought a resurgence of support and she was re-elected in 1983 and in 1987. Her tough-talking rhetoric gained her the nickname the "Iron Lady". She resigned as Prime Minister in November 1990 after Michael Heseltine's challenge to her leadership of the Conservative Party. (more...)