The first and most powerful woman in British politics. Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Lady of a kingdom, loved and loathed but never ignored

Margaret Thatcher was the first truly powerful woman in British politics. She was noted for a strength of character that was often foreign even to men, commanding respect and, at times, even intimidating.

She was not in the habit of making compromises, and this obviously propelled her to immortality, straight into the textbooks of world history. Loved or loathed, but never ignored: this is the perfect recipe for the leader by definition, one that is rarely found today without other, less pleasant, but profoundly dictatorial valences attached. Margaret Thatcher knew how to be a leader without being a dictator, and in some cases she also had a highly developed sense of irony.

The dinner was Margaret Thatcher, Iron Lady of England

Margaret Hilda Roberts (later Baroness Margaret Thatcher, by marriage) was born on 13 October 1025 in Britain. From her earliest days, little Margaret was a keen student, and in 1944 she went to Oxford to study chemistry.

Years later, she became the third woman to become head of the Conservative University Association, and later worked at British Sylonite or J. Lyons and Co. as a chemist.

In 1951 she married Daniel Thatcher, a wealthy and influential man with whom she came to spend her entire life, and with whom she had two children.

She was the first woman ever to hold the position of leader of a political party in Britain, and the country’s first female prime minister, paving the way for Theresay May and Elizabeth Truss.

Margaret Thatcher, “painted” images in cinema

Clearly, such a complete character could not be avoided by the cinema. The historical component as well as the strength of character of the Iron Lady was to be embodied in many roles in the metamorphoses of actresses Janet Brown, Alexandra Roach, Patricia Hodge, Andrea Riseborough, Lidsay Dunca, Greta Scacchi and Sylvia Syms.

However, by far the most “one-on-one” cinematic depictions belong to actresses Meryl Streep (in 2011’s The Iron Lady) and Gillian Anderson (in the fourth season of Netflix drama The Crown).

Though the performances are different, presenting different facets of the same historical figure, both capture what they need to, and together they interweave a Margaret Thatcher as she was.