A Brief History of Women in Power

Margaret Thatcher, England
Called Britain's Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher was a woman with high standards, a short temper and a taste for whiskey. A suburban housewife turned one of the world's most powerful women, she ruled from 1979 to 1990. Thatcher was Europe's first female Prime Minister and the only British Prime Minister to win three consecutive terms, giving her the longest spell in office since 1827. In her 11 years, she enabled the rise of the privatizing, capitalist state and saw the collapse of the Soviet Union; she has been called, for personality as much as achievement, the most renowned British political leader since Winston Churchill.

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