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This redirect is about the use of the expression 'Iron Lady', especially in politics. For the late British Prime Minister, see Margaret Thatcher. For other uses, see Iron Lady (disambiguation).

Margaret Thatcher was given the nickname "Iron Lady" by a Soviet journalist, and embraced it herself a week later.

Iron Lady was originally the nickname of the deceased British conservative politician and former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Margaret Thatcher,[1] and is a term that is now often used to describe female leaders or heads of government, meaning "strong-willed woman".[2] It was coined by Captain Yuri Gavrilov in a 24 January 1976 article in the Soviet newspaper Red Star about Thatcher's "Britain Awake" speech where she expressed her staunch opposition to the Soviet Union and to socialism.[1][3] It was embraced by Thatcher herself a week later.[4]

The expression is sometimes also used outside politics, such as to describe Hungarian Olympic swimmer Katinka Hosszú.[5][6]

Origin

Margaret Thatcher, the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990[1] was the leader for whom the term was coined.[3] On 19 January 1976, Thatcher, having recently been elected Leader of the Conservative Party, gave a speech entitled "Britain Awake" at Kensington Town Hall in Chelsea, London.[1] It included the claim that The Russians are bent on world dominance, and they are rapidly acquiring the means to become the most powerful imperial nation the world has seen.[1] On 24 January, the Soviet military newspaper Red Star published a response to Thatcher's speech by military journalist Captain Yuri Gavrilov.[7] Gavrilov supplied the headline "The 'Iron Lady' Sounds the Alarm"[7] to the piece, intending an allusion to Otto von Bismarck, known as the "Iron Chancellor" of imperial Germany.[8] According to Gavrilov's article, Thatcher was at the time already known as "The Iron Lady" in Britain, supposedly on account of her "extreme conservatism".[7] Gavrilov's article was noticed by the British Sunday Times newspaper the next weekend and subsequently given wide publicity.[8]

On 31 January, a week after Gavrilov's article, in a speech to Conservatives in her Finchley constituency, Thatcher herself embraced the nickname ("... I stand before you tonight ... the Iron Lady of the Western world. ... Yes I am an iron lady...") and compared it to Wellington's nickname, The Iron Duke ("... after all it wasn't a bad thing to be an iron duke, yes if that's how they wish to interpret my defence of values and freedoms fundamental to our way of life.").[4] BBC News reported on it that night.[4]

The nickname stuck firmly to Thatcher. A 2011 biographical feature film about her is called The Iron Lady.

Political usage

'Tough woman' nicknames such as 'Iron Lady' are increasingly being embraced by the 'Iron Ladies' themselves,[9] as Margaret Thatcher also did.[4] Leaders who have earned the unofficial title (some of them post facto) include:

Use outside politics

The expression is sometimes also used to describe women outside politics, such as:

Variants

Some female politicians have been given other nicknames that bear a similar connotation[9] to that of an Iron Lady:

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "Britain Awake". Margaret Thatcher Foundation. Retrieved 2 November 2008.
  2. ^ "the Iron Lady". Harper Collins Publishers. Retrieved 2 October 2016. politics, British: a nickname often used to describe female heads of government around the world, meaning 'strong-willed woman'. Most famously used of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1979 to 1990) Margaret Thatcher
  3. ^ a b c "Margaret Thatcher – The Iron Lady". BBC. 7 June 2016.
  4. ^ a b c d "1976 Jan 31 - Margaret Thatcher - Speech to Finchley Conservatives (admits to being an "Iron Lady")". Margaret Thatcher Foundation. Retrieved 24 September 2016. Beginning of section checked against BBC Radio News Report 2200 31 January 1976
    I stand before you tonight in my Red Star chiffon evening gown. (Laughter, applause), my face softly made up and my fair hair gently waved (Laughter), the Iron Lady of the Western world. A cold war warrior, an amazon philistine, even a Peking plotter. Well, am I any of these things? (No!) Well yes, if that's how they … . (Laughter) … . Yes I am an iron lady, after all it wasn't a bad thing to be an iron duke, yes if that's how they wish to interpret my defence of values and freedoms fundamental to our way of life.
    End of section checked against BBC Radio News Report 2200 31 January 1976.
  5. ^ a b Barry Svrluga (7 August 2016). "Katinka Hosszu, swimming's Iron Lady, is raising all kinds of eyebrows". Washington Post. Retrieved 10 October 2016.
  6. ^ a b Rachel Lutz (22 July 2016). "Olympic alchemy: Turning Hungary's 'Iron Lady' Katinka Hosszu into gold". NBC Olympics. Retrieved 10 October 2016.
  7. ^ a b c Gavrilov, Yuri, "The 'Iron Lady' Sounds the Alarm", Krasnaya zvezda, 1976-01-24, p. 3, translated at The Current Digest of the Soviet Press – Volume 28, Issues 1–13 – Page 17
  8. ^ a b Amazing & Extraordinary Facts – Prime Ministers, David & Charles, https://books.google.com/books?id=lrKJaTWhlm8C&pg=PT108&dq=%22iron+lady%22+Gavrilov&hl=en&sa=X&ei=UCBnUf6nPImdkQXpvoC4Bw&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAA
  9. ^ a b c "Iron Ladies uncovered". International Museum of Women (now part of the Global Fund for Women). Retrieved 10 October 2016. Turning an Insult into Admiration

    Rather than fight the nicknames, a new generation of Iron Ladies are embracing them -- and a new generation of constituents is more open to tough women leaders being effective at solving problems.
  10. ^ https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1370&dat=20020124&id=3oMVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=mgsEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4030,2570067 Gloria Arroyo: Iron Lady of Asia 24 January 2002
  11. ^ U.K. loses its first Iron Lady By Hasan Suroor (The Hindu) 5 May 2002
  12. ^ Butt, Gerald (21 April 1998). "Golda Meir". BBC News. Retrieved 20 October 2011. Golda Meir was the Iron Lady of Israeli politics years before the epithet was coined for Margaret Thatcher.
  13. ^ "Biljana Plavsic: Serbian iron lady". BBC News 27 February 2003
  14. ^ "Malawi's iron lady Joyce Banda". Kenya Central Online.
  15. ^ Aussie Iron Lady will die fighting. The Daily Telegraphy 27 July 2012
  16. ^ Gillard reveals her inner iron lady, and gets her way. The Sydney Morning Herald 20 November 2011
  17. ^ "Manuela Ferreira Leite, Portugal's "Iron Lady"". www.topnews.in. 23 September 2009. Retrieved 4 September 2013. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  18. ^ Ukraine's Iron Lady, Time magazine (30 January 2005)
  19. ^ Ukraine's Iron Lady provokes rift, The Guardian (3 July 2005)
  20. ^ "Iron lady Helen Clark has steel for global challenge". Stuff.co.nz. 5 April 2009. Retrieved 11 May 2011.
  21. ^ Rohter, Larry (22 June 2005). "Brazil: 'Iron Lady' Is New Chief Of Staff". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 December 2009.
  22. ^ "Liberia's 'Iron Lady' claims win". BBC. 11 November 2005. Retrieved 23 July 2006.
  23. ^ Lithuania elects first female president ABC News Dalia Grybauskaite: Lithuania’s ‘Iron Lady’. Khaleej Times.
  24. ^ "The Successor of Lukashenko could be the "Iron Lady" of Belarus – Natalia Petkevich". newsru.com. 9 July 2006. Retrieved 24 July 2010.
  25. ^ Usborne, David (11 February 2012). "Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner: The iron lady of the Malvinas". The Independent. London. Retrieved 4 September 2013. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  26. ^ Williams, Ian. "South Korea's 'Iron Lady' Park Geun-hye comes to Washington". NBC News. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
  27. ^ Ryan Lizza (17 March 2008). "The Iron Lady". The New Yorker.
  28. ^ Riley, Alan (3 December 2009). "The legacy of the Iron Lady of Antitrust". European Voice. Retrieved 25 January 2010.
  29. ^ Wan, William (17 August 2014). "Hong Kong's 'Iron Lady' takes up democracy fight with Beijing". Guardian Weekly.
  30. ^ Rituparna Chatterjee (20 April 2011). "Spot the Difference: Hazare vs. Irom Sharmila". Sinlung. Retrieved 30 April 2011.
  31. ^ John Ted Cordero (29 September 2016). "Miriam Defensor Santiago: Asia's Iron Lady".
  32. ^ Rowan, Roy (29 March 1976). "Orchid or Iron Butterfly, Imelda Marcos Is a Prime Mover in Manila". People Magazine. Retrieved 23 July 2006.
  33. ^ van Egmond, Joost (2 July 2006). "Iron Rita Loses Her Mettle". Time. Retrieved 23 July 2006.
  34. ^ van de Pol, Jurjen (3 April 2008). "'Iron Rita' Starts New Dutch Political Party After Wilders Film". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 23 July 2006.
  35. ^ Federation of American Scientists. NATO-List: USIA – Albright Foreign Media Reaction: "Titanium Lady Shows Her Mettle in Moscow" The conservative Daily Telegraph pointed out (21 February 1997)
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