Margaret Thatcher
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990
Margaret Thatcher: from Finchley to Downing Street
Chemistry, law and Parliament
Margaret Thatcher studied chemistry at Oxford, where she also led the university Conservative association. She subsequently trained for the Bar and was elected Conservative MP for Finchley in 1959. After junior government and opposition roles, she served as education secretary in Edward Heath’s government.
Party leader and prime minister
Thatcher defeated Heath for the Conservative leadership in 1975. Her party won the 1979 general election, making her Britain’s first woman prime minister. Her government pursued privatisation, changes to trade-union law and a larger role for market mechanisms. The 1982 Falklands War became another defining event of her premiership.
A long tenure ends over Europe
The Conservatives won further general elections in 1983 and 1987, keeping Thatcher in office until 1990. Disagreements over European policy contributed to Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe’s resignation and a leadership challenge by Michael Heseltine. She left Downing Street later that year after more than eleven years as prime minister.