Исследовательская работа "The role of women throughout history of Great Britain"

Ministry of Education of the Republic of Belarus

Education, sport and tourism department of Novopolotsk executive committee

State Educational Institution

"SS No. 8 of Novopolotsk"

THE ROLE OF WOMEN THROUGHOUT HISTORY

OF GREAT BRITAIN

Pupils of 11 grade

Julia Chernishova

Research supervisor:

Degterova N.V. -

English teacher

Novopolotsk, 2019

CONTENT

INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………..……3

1 BOUDICCA………………………………………………………….……4

1.1 Prasutagus, king of the Iceni………………………………….…………4

1.2 Boudicca. Causes of Boudicca's Rebellion …………………..…………4

1.3 Boudicca's War……………………………………………………….…5

2 VICTORIA…………………………….………………………………….8

2.1 Queen Victoria…………………………………………….…………….8

2.2 Queen Victoria s Legacy………………………………….……………10

3 ELIZABETH………………………………………………..……………12

3.1 Elizabeth I. Elizabethan England……………………….………….…..12

3.2 The most iconic figure in history………………………………………16

4 MARGARET THATCHER…………………………………………...…18

4.1 Margaret Thatcher: The Early Years……………………………….…..18

4.2 Margaret Thatcher Enters Parliament………………………………..…19

4.3 Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister……………………….………….19

4.4 Margaret Thatcher’s Fall From Power……………………..…………..21

CONCLUSION…………………….………………………………………22

REFERENCE LIST………………………………………………………...23

INTRODUCTION

More often, in modern society, the issue of gender inequality arises. In most of the countries, males are associated with strengths and being active, while females - with weakness and being passive. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Throughout history, there are vivid examples of women who manifested themselves as great politicians, self-sacrificing warriors and successful entrepreneurs. All of those are the product of their time. Let’s remember that the way we treat women is one of the most important criteria used to define civilizations, because female is the Source of life…

Hypothesis:

In any historical era there is a place for a strong, independent and intelligent woman

The purpose of the study:

• Define the role of women throughout history in Great Britain

Object:

History of Britain

Subjects:

• Examine selfless patriotism and military prowess of Boudicca - the Queen of the Iceni tribe

• Examine a life of Elizabeth, the Queen of Great Britain

• Analyze the activities of Queen Victoria in the process of expanding the territory of British Empire

• Define the role of Margaret Thatcher in political development of the United Kingdom.

1 BOUDICCA

1.1 Prasutagus, king of the Iceni

The historian Miranda Aldhouse-Green cites an earlier Iceni rebellion, in 47 CE, as the cause of Prasutagus' elevation to chief of the tribe. This rebellion was unsuccessful and it is unclear what role Prasutagus played in it but it seems clear that the Romans saw Prasutagus as a leader who could keep the peace between the Iceni and Rome. Prosutagus, after a life of long and renownded prosperity, had made the emperor co-heir with his own two daughters.

Aldhouse-Green also notes the significance of Prasutagus' will, which divided his estate between his daughters and Rome and omitted Boudicca, as evidence of the queen's hostility toward Rome. It is argued that, by leaving her out of the will, Prasutagus hoped his daughters would continue his policy of cooperation. After his death, however, all hope of the Iceni existing peacefully with Rome was lost. When Prasutagus died, however, his lands were taken by Rome and the Iceni lost their status as allies.

1.2 Boudicca. Causes of Boudicca's Rebellion

The Iceni King, Prasutagus, an independent ally of Rome, divided his estate between his daughters and King Nero of Rome. When his wife, Boudicca, objected to this action she was flogged and her two daughters raped. She was the Celtic Queen of the Iceni tribe of modern-day East Anglia, Britain, who led a revolt against Rome in 60/61 CE. Boudicca became the instigator of a major uprising that raised her people to the struggle against the Roman soldiers. She led the Iceni revolt against Roman rule, in which she allied with other tribes to attack the Romans and burned several cities including Camulodunum (Colchester) and Londinium (London) to the ground. She and her followers showed no mercy, even to the people of the cities she burned. 

 She was defeated at the Battle of Watling Street by the Roman Governor Gaius Suetonius Paulinus chiefly by his judicious choice of battlefield and allowing her army to cut off its own escape route by encircling their rear with their wagons, animals and families. Boudicca is said to have committed suicide by poisoning herself after her defeat.

1.3 Boudicca's War

Boudicca first struck the city of Camulodunum (modern Colchester) where she massacred the inhabitants and destroyed the settlement. Governor Suetonius was engaged in putting down an uprising on the Island of Mona and so the Roman citizens appealed to imperial agent Catus Decianus. He sent a lightly armed force of 200 men who proved ineffective in defense of the city. The Ninth Roman Division, led by Rufus, marched to relieve the settlement but were routed and the infantry decimated by the Briton forces. Tacticus cites the greed and rapacity of men like Catus Decianus for the viciousness of the Britons in revolt.

Boudicca Haranguing the Britons

Suetonius, returning from Mona, marched to Londinium (modern London) but, upon receiving intelligence that Boudicca's forces far outnumbered his own, left the city to its fate and sought a field more advantageous for battle. Boudicca's army sacked Londinium and, as before, massacred the inhabitants.

Suetonius had offered the people of the city safe passage with his army and it seems many accepted this offer. However, Tacitus writes, "but those who stayed because they were women, or old, or attached to the place, were slaughtered by the enemy. Verulamium suffered the same fate."

The Battle of Watling Street

While the Britons were destroying Verulamium (modern St. Albans) Suetonius "chose a position in a defile with a wood behind him. There could be no enemy, he knew, except at his front, where there was open country without cover for ambushes" (Tacitus). The Britons arrived to battle in "unprecedented numbers. Their confidence was such that they brought their wives with them to see the victory, installing them in carts stationed at the edge of the battlefield"(Tacitus).

Both leaders are said to have encouraged and inspired their troops and then Suetonius gave the signal for battle and the infantry moved forward to throw their javelins. Boudicca's superior numbers were of no advantage in the narrow field Suetonius had chosen and, in fact, worked against her as the mass of men pushed together provided easy marks for the Romans.

Queen Boudiсca

The Britons fell back before the javelin assault and then the advancing wedge formation which cut through their ranks. Suetonius ordered in his auxiliary infantry and then his cavalry and the Britons turned to flee the field. The supply train they had arranged at their rear prevented their escape and the rout turned into a massacre.

Tacitus writes, "the remaining Britons fled with difficulty since their ring of wagons blocked the outlets. The Romans did not spare even the women. Baggage animals too, transfixed with weapons, added to the heaps of dead." Boudicca and her daughters apparently managed to escape but, soon after, poisoned themselves to escape capture.

While the site of the battle is unknown, it is referred to as The Battle of Watling Street and suggestions as to precise location range from King's Cross, London to Church Stowe, Northamptonshire. Following Boudicca's defeat, Suetonius instituted harsher laws on the indigenous people of Britain until he was replaced by Publius Petronius Turpilianus who further secured the south of the region for Rome through gentler measures.

Other, smaller, insurrections were mounted in the years following Boudicca's revolt but none gained the same wide spread support nor cost as many lives. The Romans would continue to hold Britain, without any further significant trouble, until their withdrawal from the region in 410 CE. Though she lost her battle and her cause, Boudicca is celebrated today as a national heroine and a universal symbol of the human desire for freedom and justice.

She was legendary Celtic queen and she became one of the most famous folklore characters in Britain.

She was largely forgotten until the Victorian era. The closest English equivalent to the vowel in the first syllable is the ow in "bow-and-arrow".John Rhys suggested that the most comparable Latin name, in meaning only, would be "Victorina". Interest in these events was revived in the English Renaissance and led to Boudica's fame in the Victorian era. Boudica has remained an important cultural symbol in the United Kingdom.

It was in the Victorian era that Boudica's fame took on legendary proportions as Queen Victoria came to be seen as Boudica's “namesake”, their names being identical in meaning.

2 VICTORIA

2.1 Queen Victoria

Victoria was queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and empress of India. She was the longest-ruling monarch of Great Britain until Queen Elizabeth II surpassed her record and ruled during a time of economic and imperial expansion. Her children and grandchildren married into many royal families of Europe, and some introduced the hemophilia gene into those families. She was a member of the house of Hanover, later called the house of Windsor.

Birth

Alexandrina Victoria was born on May 24, 1819, the only child of Edward, duke of Kent, the fourth son of King George III Her mother was Victoire Maria Louisa of Saxe-Coburg, sister of Prince (later King) Leopold of the Belgians. Edward had married Victoire when an heir to the throne was needed after the death of Princess Charlotte, who had been married to Prince Leopold. Edward died in 1820, just before his father did. Victoire became the guardian of Alexandrina Victoria, as designated in Edward's will.

When George IV became king, his dislike for Victoire helped isolate the mother and daughter from the rest of the court. Prince Leopold helped his sister and niece financially.

Heiress

Victoria became heiress-apparent to the British crown on the death of her uncle George IV in 1825, at which point the parliament granted her income. She remained relatively isolated, without any real friends, though with many servants and teachers and a succession of pet dogs. A tutor, Louise Lehzen, tried to teach Victoria the kind of discipline that Queen Elizabeth I had displayed. She was tutored in politics by her uncle Leopold.

When Victoria turned 18, her uncle, William IV, offered her a separate income and household, but Victoria's mother refused. Victoria attended a ball in her honor and was greeted by crowds in the streets.

Queen

When William IV died childless a month later, she became Queen of Great Britain and was crowned the next year.

Victoria began to exclude her mother from her inner circle. The first crisis of her reign came when rumors circulated that one of her mother's ladies-in-waiting, Lady Flora, was pregnant by her mother's adviser, John Conroy. Lady Flora died of a liver tumor, but opponents at court used the rumors to make the new queen seem less innocent.

Queen Victoria tested the limits of her royal powers when the government of Lord Melbourne, a Whig who had been her mentor and friend, fell the next year. She refused to follow precedent and dismiss her ladies of the bedchamber so that the Tory government could replace them. In the "bedchamber crisis" she had the support of Melbourne. Her refusal brought back the Whigs until 1841.

Government Role

When Melbourne's government failed in 1841, he helped with the transition to the new government to avoid another embarrassing crisis. Victoria had a more limited role under Prime Minister Peel, with Albert taking a lead for the next 20 years of "dual monarchy." Albert guided Victoria to an appearance of political neutrality, though she didn't become fonder of Peel. Instead she became involved with establishing charities.

European sovereigns visited her at home, and she and Albert visited Germany, including Coburg and Berlin. She began to feel herself part of a larger network of monarchs. Albert and Victoria used their relationship to become more active in foreign affairs, which conflicted with the ideas of the foreign minister, Lord Palmerston. He didn't appreciate their involvement, and Victoria and Albert often thought his ideas too liberal and aggressive.

Albert worked on a plan for a Great Exhibition, with a Crystal Palace in Hyde Park. Public appreciation for this finally led to a warming of the British citizens toward their queen's consort.

Wars

The war in Crimea engrossed Victoria's attention; she rewarded Florence Nightingale for her service in helping protect and heal soldiers. Victoria's concern for the wounded and sick led to her founding Royal Victoria Hospital. As a result of the war, Victoria grew closer to the French emperor Napoleon III and his empress Eugénie.

The mutiny of sepoys, Indian infantrymen in the army of the East India Co., shocked Victoria. This and subsequent events led to British direct rule over India, and Victoria's new title as empress of India.

2.2 Queen Victoria s Legacy

Her influence on British and world affairs, even if often as a figurehead, led to the naming of the Victorian Era for her. She saw the largest extent of the British empire and the tensions within it. Her relationship with her son, keeping him from any shared power, probably weakened the royal rule in future generations, and the failure of her daughter and son-in-law in Germany to have time to actualize their liberal ideas probably shifted the balance of European history.

The marriage of her daughters into other royal families and the likelihood that her children bore a mutant gene for hemophilia affected the following generations of European history.

Queen Victoria is a symbol, for one of the greatest period of the European history, and it had been named with her.

Victoria became Queen of England in June 1837, when she was just 18 years old. Her coronation took place at Westminster Abbey a year later in June 1838, where everyone cheered “Long live the Queen!”

In economy, the Victorian Era might otherwise be called the Golden years, describing how much did the economy progress. As industrialization began, the introduction of railway, all led to her fame. Even though Queen Victoria is not an decision maker, what makes her memorable was the economy growth during her reign.

At the height of the empire, a quarter of the world’s land surface was ruled by Victoria. She was proclaimed Empress of India in 1877. By the end of her reign, Australia and Canada were dominions, South Africa was soon to become a united nation, and large parts of Africa, the Far East and Oceania were under British rule. Victoria also exerted a strong, albeit different, influence over Europe. The queen was related to nearly all the ruling houses on the continent, through her own relatives or her children’s marriages, giving rise to the epithet ‘Grandmother of Europe’. Victoria died in 1901, aged 81, having outlived Albert by 40 years.

In culture, some of the most well known novel are written in this period: Charles Dicken’s the Tale of Two City, and Great Expectation, the building of one of the most tragic structure in the history of mankind: The Crystal Palace which hosted the Great Exhibition of 1851, the world’s first World Fair.

There are lots of famous places and sites around the world named after this famous British Queen, such as the state of Queensland in Australia, Victoria Falls in Zambia and Zimbabwe, the city of Victoria in Canada, and Victoria Square in Athens, Greece.

3 ELIZABETH

3.1 Elizabeth I. Elizabethan England

Elizabeth I was the long-ruling queen of England, governing with relative stability and prosperity for 44 years. The Elizabethan era is named for her.

Who Was Queen Elizabeth I?

Queen Elizabeth I (September 7, 1533 to March 24, 1603) claimed the throne in 1558 at the age of 25 and held it until her death 44 years later. The daughter of King Henry VIII and his second wife Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth I was born a princess but declared illegitimate through political machinations.

Eventually, upon her half-sister Mary Tudor’s death, she took the crown. During her reign, Elizabeth I - sometimes called the "Virgin Queen" who never married - established Protestantism in England; defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588; maintained peace inside her previously divided country; and created an environment where the arts flourished.

Elizabethan England

Queen Elizabeth I’s reign was sometimes referred to as the England's Golden Age or Elizabethan England, an era of peace and prosperity when the arts had a chance to blossom with Elizabeth's support.

While she worked hard at court, Elizabeth took time for leisurely pursuits. She loved music and could play the lute. Thomas Tallis and William Byrd were among her court musicians. Elizabeth also enjoyed dancing and watching plays. Elizabeth's reign supported the creation of works by such greats as William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe.

Writers paid tribute to the queen in many literary forms. The poet Edmund Spenser based his character of Gloriana in The Faerie Queen on Elizabeth, and she was sometimes referred to by this name.

Portraiture was the reigning form of painting at the time, and artists honored Elizabeth by painting her portrait. These images reveal that Elizabeth was an early fashionista in many ways. She loved jewelry and beautiful clothing; her garments were often made with gold and silver. With the help of makeup, Elizabeth cultivated a dramatically pale look.

Elizabeth I inherited a number of problems stirred up by Mary. The country was at war with France, which proved to be a tremendous drain on the royal coffers.

There was also great tension between different religious factions after Mary worked to restore England to Roman Catholicism by any means necessary. In fact, she earned the nickname Bloody Mary for ordering the execution of 300 Protestants as heretics.

Elizabeth acted swiftly to address these two pressing issues. During her first session of Parliament in 1559, she called for the passage of the Act of Supremacy, which re-established the Church of England, and the Act of Uniformity, which created a common prayer book.

Elizabeth took a moderate approach to the divisive religious conflict in her country. "There is one Jesus Christ," she once said. "The rest is a dispute over trifles." However, Catholics did suffer religious persecution and some were executed under her reign, though historians differ on the extent. The Roman Catholic Church took a dim view of her actions, and in 1570, Pope Pius V excommunicated Elizabeth.

With the assistance of her key advisor, William Cecil, Elizabeth ended the war with France. She was able to avoid clashing with the other superpower of the age, Spain, for much of her reign.

But finally, in 1585, Elizabeth entered the fray to support the Protestant rebellion against Spain in the Netherlands. Spain then set its sights on England, but the English navy was able to defeat the infamous Spanish Armada in 1588. According to several reports, the weather proved to be a deciding factor in England's victory.

Death

Queen Elizabeth I died on March 24, 1603, at Richmond Palace in Surrey. It’s believed that the cosmetic concoction Elizabeth used to cultivate her infamously pale look, called the "spirits of Saturn" — made by mixing white lead and vinegar — may have impacted her health.

Successor

Because Elizabeth I had no children, with her death came the end of the house of Tudor — a royal family that had ruled England since the late 1400s. The son of her former rival and cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots, succeeded her on the throne as James I.

During Elizabeth’s rule, Mary Stuart posed one of the greatest internal threats to remove her cousin from the throne. The daughter of King James V of Scotland, Mary united her country with France in 1558 when she married the future King Francis II.

After Francis' death, Mary returned to Scotland in 1561. She was raised Catholic and was considered by many English Catholics to be the rightful monarch of England, and Mary had previously lay claim to the English crown.

Elizabeth jailed her cousin in 1567 in connection with several assassination attempts, including the Babington Plot. Elizabeth kept Mary imprisoned for nearly 20 years before she had her cousin executed in 1587.

Young Queen Elizabeth

As the daughter of King Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth grew up in complex and sometimes difficult circumstances. She was only two years old when her mother was beheaded on the orders of her father, based on questionable charges of adultery and conspiracy.

Elizabeth was raised much like any other royal child. She received tutoring and excelled at languages and music. After her father's death in 1547, Elizabeth spent some time under the care of her stepmother Catherine Parr.

Parr hired tutors on Elizabeth's behalf, including William Grindal and Roger Ascham. Tensions with Parr over Parr's new husband, Thomas Seymour, led Elizabeth to return to the royal estate at Hatfield, away from the court. Her relationship with Seymour later came under scrutiny, and Seymour was later tried for conspiring to wed Elizabeth in a bid to gain power. Found guilty, Seymour was executed.

Elizabeth and her older half-sister, Mary Tudor, were declared to be illegitimate as her father sought to pave the way for a male heir: their half-brother, Edward, who was the king’s first and only legitimate son with his third wife, Jane Seymour.

Mary and Elizabeth were later reinstated as potential heirs. Born in 1537, Edward succeeded his father to the throne as King Edward VI upon Henry VIII’s death in 1547.

Palace Intrigue

But when Edward VI died just six years later, in 1553, Elizabeth found herself again embroiled in political intrigue. Her older half-sister Mary and their cousin, Lady Jane Grey, both were in line for the crown.

Edward had appointed Grey to be his successor, but her reign proved to be very short: Mary gained the support of the English people and unseated Grey after only nine days on the throne.

Even though Elizabeth supported Mary in her coup, she was not free from suspicion. A staunch Roman Catholic, Mary sought to restore her country back to her faith, undoing her father's break from the Pope. While Elizabeth went along with the religious change, she remained a candidate for the throne for those who wanted a return to Protestantism.

In 1554, Thomas Wyatt organized a rebellion against Mary with the hopes of making Protestant-raised Elizabeth queen. But his plot was uncovered, and Elizabeth was quickly imprisoned by Mary. Elizabeth disputed any involvement in the conspiracy, but her sister was not wholly convinced.

Although she was soon released, Elizabeth's life was firmly in her sister's hands. Wyatt was executed, but he maintained that Elizabeth was not aware of the rebellion. Elizabeth eventually returned to Hatfield and continued with her studies. In 1558, Elizabeth ascended to the throne upon Mary Tudor’s death.

Virgin Queen

Succession was a pressing issue for Queen Elizabeth I. During her reign, she showed her talents as a diplomat, managing a number of suitors and potential royal matches.

Through her father and her sister, however, Elizabeth had seen the troubles and challenges of royal marriages. Mary had made an unpopular choice in marrying Philip II of Spain, who shared her devotion to the Roman Catholic faith. In the hopes of reuniting their two countries once more, Phillip even offered to wed Elizabeth at one time.

Other suitors for Elizabeth's hand included the Archduke Charles of Austria and the future King Henry III of France. She used her availability as a means to political ends, but she never agreed to marriage.

She herself seemed to have some interest in a member of her court, Robert Dudley, and their relationship was the subject of much gossip and speculation. Both parties came under suspicion after the mysterious death of Dudley's wife.

Elizabeth, however, seemed to have no interest in sharing power with a spouse. Over time, she cultivated her image as a queen married to her job and her people. For this dedication Elizabeth earned the nickname the "Virgin Queen."

3.2 The most iconic figure in history

Later Years

Troubled times marked the final years of Elizabeth's reign. The country suffered from failed crops, unemployment and inflation. There were riots over food shortages and rebellions in Ireland.

Elizabeth faced many challenges to her authority, including from one of her favorite noblemen, Robert Devereaux, the Earl of Essex. She had sent him to Ireland to quell the rebellion led by Hugh O'Neill. Instead, Essex returned to England and sought to start his own rebellion. He was executed for treason in 1601.

Elizabeth I’s Golden Speech

Despite her fading power, Elizabeth still showed her devotion to her people. She gave one of her most famous speeches in 1601 to Parliament.

During what is referred to as her "Golden Speech," a self-reflective Elizabeth seemed to look back on her long reign. "Of myself I must say this, I was never any greedy, scraping grasper, nor a strait, fast-holding prince, nor yet a waster. My heart was never set on worldly goods but for my subjects' good."

While the end of her reign had been difficult, Elizabeth has largely been remembered as being a queen who supported her people. Her lengthy time on the throne provided her subjects with stability and consistency, and her political acumen, sharp wit and clever mind helped navigate the nation through many religious, social and governmental challenges.

Elizabeth I (1533–1603) is one of the most iconic figures in history. The daughter of Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn, she was England’s ‘Gloriana’ – a virgin queen who saw herself as wedded to her country, and who brought almost half a century of stability.

Elizabeth the first is one of the most famous queens in english history. Under her reign, England prospered. The Elizabethan era is often referred to as the Golden age. She was a moderate protestant who reconciled between the catholics and the protestants. She encouraged the arts through approving of theaters and prompting artists, and poets to be creative. No wonder that she was praised at the time by most artists. Furthermore, During her time, The mighty fleet of the famous spanish ARMADA was crushed in 1588, and the spanish maritime supremacy was ended. without doubt, Elizabeth 1 is the beloved queen of England.

4 MARGARET THATCHER

4.1 Margaret Thatcher: The Early Years

Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013), the United Kingdom’s first female prime minister, served from 1979 until 1990. During her time in office, she reduced the influence of trade unions, privatized certain industries, scaled back public benefits and changed the terms of political debate, much like her friend and ideological ally, U.S. President Ronald Reagan. Nicknamed the “Iron Lady,” she opposed Soviet communism and fought a war to maintain control of the Falkland Islands. The longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century, Thatcher was eventually pressured into resigning by members of her own Conservative Party

Margaret Hilda Roberts, later Margaret Thatcher, was born on October 13, 1925, in Grantham, a small town in Lincolnshire, England. Her parents, Alfred and Beatrice, were middle-class shopkeepers and devout Methodists. Alfred was also a politician, serving as a town council member for 16 years before becoming an alderman in 1943 and mayor of Grantham from 1945 to 1946.

Did you know? In 2007 Margaret Thatcher became the first living ex-prime minister in British history to be honored with a statue in the Houses of Parliament. It stands opposite a statue of Winston Churchill in the lobby of the House of Commons.

Thatcher matriculated at Oxford University in 1943, during the height of World War II. While there she studied chemistry and joined the Oxford Union Conservative Association, becoming president of the organization in 1946. After graduation she worked as a research chemist, but her real interest was politics. In 1950 she ran for parliament in the Labour-dominated constituency of Dartford, using the slogan “Vote Right to Keep What’s Left.” She lost that year and again in 1951, but received more votes than previous Conservative Party candidates.

4.2 Margaret Thatcher Enters Parliament

In December 1951 Margaret married Denis Thatcher, a wealthy businessman. Less than two years later she gave birth to twins, Carol and Mark. Meanwhile, she was studying for the bar exams, which she passed in early 1954. She then spent the next few years practicing law and looking for a winnable constituency.

Thatcher ran for parliament once more in 1959—this time in the Conservative-dominated constituency of Finchley—and easily won the seat. The first bill she introduced affirmed the right of the media to cover local government meetings. Speaking about the bill in her maiden speech, she focused not on freedom of the press but instead on the need to limit wasteful government expenditures—a common theme throughout her political career.

By 1961 Thatcher had accepted an invitation to become parliamentary undersecretary in the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance. She then steadily moved up the ministerial ranks, becoming secretary of state for education and science when the Conservatives retook power in 1970. The following year she was demonized by her Labour Party opponents as “Thatcher the milk snatcher” when she eliminated a free milk program for schoolchildren. Nonetheless, she was able to keep her job, and in 1975, with the Conservatives back in the opposition, she defeated former Prime Minister Edward Heath to take over leadership of the party.

4.3 Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister

Thatcher was now one of the most powerful women in the world. She rejected the economic theories of John Maynard Keynes, who advocated deficit spending during periods of high unemployment, instead preferring the monetarist approach of Chicago economist Milton Friedman. At her first conference speech, she chastised the Labour Party on economic grounds, saying, “A man’s right to work as he will, to spend what he earns, to own property, to have the state as servant and not as master—these are the British inheritance.” Soon after, she attacked the Soviet Union as “bent on world dominance.” A Soviet army newspaper responded by calling her “the Iron Lady,” a nickname she immediately embraced.

The Conservatives, helped out by a “winter of discontent” in which numerous unions went on strike, won the 1979 election, and Thatcher became prime minister. During her first term, the government lowered direct taxes while increasing taxes on spending, sold off public housing, put in austerity measures and made other reforms, even as rising inflation and unemployment caused Thatcher’s popularity to temporarily wane. In April 1982 Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands, a sparsely populated British colony located 300 miles from Argentina and 8,000 miles from the United Kingdom. Thatcher dispatched troops to the area. On May 2, a British submarine controversially sank an Argentine cruiser that was outside of an official exclusion zone, killing over 300 people on board. Later in the month, British troops landed near San Carlos Bay in East Falkland and, despite persistent air attacks, were able to capture the capital of Port Stanley and end the fighting.

The war and an improving economy propelled Thatcher to a second term in 1983. This time around, her government took on the trade unions, requiring them to hold a secret ballot before any work stoppage and refusing to make any concessions during a yearlong miners’ strike. In what became a key part of her legacy, Thatcher also privatized British Telecom, British Gas, British Airways, Rolls-Royce and a number of other state-owned companies.

On the foreign policy front, Thatcher often found herself allied with U.S. President Ronald Reagan, whom she later described as “the supreme architect of the West’s Cold War victory.” Her relationship with her own continent’s leaders was more complicated, particularly since she believed the Europe Union should be a free-trade area rather than a political endeavor.

“That such an unnecessary and irrational project as building a European superstate was ever embarked upon will seem in future years to be perhaps the greatest folly of the modern era,” she wrote in her 2002 book Statecraft. In Asia, meanwhile, she negotiated the eventual transfer of Hong Kong to the Chinese. In Africa she had a mixed record, facilitating the end of white minority rule in Zimbabwe but opposing sanctions against apartheid South Africa.

4.4 Margaret Thatcher’s Fall From Power

After Thatcher was elected to a third term in 1987, her government lowered income tax rates to a postwar low. It also pushed through an unpopular “community charge” that was met with street protests and high levels of nonpayment. On November 14, 1990, former Defense Minister Michael Heseltine challenged her for leadership of the party, partly due to differences of opinion on the European Union.

Thatcher won the first ballot but by too small of a margin for outright victory. That night, her cabinet members visited her one by one and urged her to resign. She officially stepped down on November 28 after helping to assure that John Major and not Heseltine would replace her.

Thatcher remained in parliament until 1992, at which time she entered the largely ceremonial House of Lords and began to write her memoirs. Though she stopped appearing in public after suffering a series of small strokes in the early 2000s, her influence remained strong. In fact, many of her free market policies have since been adopted, not only by Conservatives, but also by Labour Party leaders like Tony Blair. In 2011, the former prime minister was the subject of an award-winning (and controversial) biographical film, “The Iron Lady,” which depicted her political rise and fall. Margaret Thatcher died on April 8, 2013, at the age of 87.

CONCLUSION

Today, women seem to have the best professional chances in education, as teachers and professors, in medicine, as doctors, and in journalism, where some even write about such “ unfeminine “ things as sport, business and aviation. There are a number of women solicitors and even a few women barristers. Other good jobs for women can be found in the “ new industries” like computers. Many of the top computer programmers and specialists are women. Women are slowly winning some of the top positions in politics. Since about 1964 all the governments have had at least one woman as minister and Margaret Thatcher has become a famous British Prime Minister.

Dramatic clash of two female personalities like Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary. Nevertheless they reminded women with their weak points and attachments in spite of their crowns.

Proud and independent Queen of the Iceni Boadica headed an uprising of the tribes against the occupying forces on the Roman Empire.

Queen Victoria displayed a personality marked by strong prejudices and a willful stubbornness.

We can speak about Diana s generosity and openness. We can be admired for intelligence and purpose of Condoleezza Rice.

But I am sure that every epoch has its unforgettable, outstanding, reasonable, powerful, clever, fearless and at the same time loving, tender, careful and at least beautiful women whose role in the history of any country is important and considerable.

REFERENCE LIST

1        https://www.history.com/topics/british-history/margaret-thatcher

2        https://www.thoughtco.com/queen-victoria-biography-3530656

3        https://www.ancient.eu/Boudicca/

4        https://www.biography.com/people/queen-elizabeth-i-9286133

5        https://boudiccaa.weebly.com/boudiccas-legacy.html

6        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boudica

7        https://www.bbc.com/timelines/ztn34j6

8        https://www.rct.uk/collection/people/queen-victoria-queen-of-the-united-kingdom-1819-1901#/type/subject

9        https://www.royal.uk/queen-victoria

10   https://www.royal.uk/elizabeth-i

11   https://www.historyextra.com/period/elizabethan/7-things-you-probably-didnt-know-about-elizabeth-i/

12   https://www.biography.com/people/margaret-thatcher-9504796

13   https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/22071055

14   https://www.history.co.uk/biographies/margaret-thatcher