The Iron Lady: Have things really changed?
about Margaret Thatcher, whether we like or dislike her or if we agreed then or now with her politics, but let’s look at Margaret as a female. In the move ‘The Iron Lady’, Meryl Streep does a superb job playing the role of Margaret Thatcher, the only female Prime Minister in the UK politics. Perhaps the reason that so many of us remember Margaret’s politics is that she was had great resolve, determination and did not play to win the votes of the politicians, rather to do what she thought needed to be done. Right or wrong. Again, removing the political veil from this discussion, it means she was a woman of strong resolve! Also, let’s remove the hollywoodization element, which perhaps may make Margaret Thatcher seem different than she is in the movie. We are only talking about facts here. Her election, the climate of female politicians in the UK then and now and the global scene. All facts. She did all that while being a mother as well.Here are some thoughts that I want to share with you:
1. She came from nothing (a shop owner’s daughter), determined to graduate from Oxford, to enter the political scene not only as the ONLY woman, but she was also not a privileged woman (She was not groomed nor did she come from the ‘right’ class).
2. She did not let the norm stop her from her dreams, rather she was driven with what she felt needed to be done.
3. Executed on her decisions with passion, even when not popular.
4. Never allowed her ‘gender’ to stop her or did she use the woman ‘trump card’!
In essence, she is a rare example of a ‘person’ doing the best job they feel they can do, vs a ‘woman’ assigned to the task. In addition , it was extremely difficult to enter the political scene without the political heritage to pull you through the hard times. How is it that she survived her role for a decade and the same men-populated political arena accepted and respected her as the longest running Prime Minister?
Here we are, nearly 30 years after she became PM and perhaps broke the so called glass ceiling, with only a handful of women top CEO’s. Single digit women board members, women generally not in a position of power and dismal statistics. How is it that Maggie survived through a system that was extremely unprepared and unforgiving, yet decades later we are still asking the same question and have the same issues? During the last election we almost had a chance for a female President and clearly have many capable women in politics, but, are they where they should be? Do we have enough women leaders around the world?
Why are we still asking the same questions?
My current thinking (and would love to hear from you) is that the boundaries that one sets for their success is set and maintained by ourselves. When she got fed up with things not being done, she ran for the job and became PM. She did not stop and analyze the politics of her gender. I am sure that would have stopped her. So firstly , we make the bed we sleep in and we DO have control.
Secondly, her father showed her that passion is what is crucial, not privilege. She had a great role model who believed in her. Do all women have such role models? And thirdly, as women we should stop waiting for affirmation and praise and focus more at the task at hand.
I see phenomenal number of highly talented women who are not in the positions which they can and deserve to be in. What would happen if these women just went for it!??? If they thought less and did not take no for an answer?!
Whatever our political view, I propose that all women see this movie as it bring up a lot of issues which are hugely relevant today as they were then.
So, I say: Just do it! Let’s just do it.
Agreed. Much of the time, we need to think less, and just do it.
At the same time, let’s be careful about having someone (be it a woman, a person of a different race, etc) elected for a position, simply because of the sex, age, religion, they happened to be.
Even though I do agree there are brilliant women out there who need to be in higher positions, let’s not forget what happened when someone like Tansu Ciller was elected the first female prime minister of the Republic of Turkey, pretty much because and after the hype of simply being a woman…she ended up robbing the country blind!
At the same time, not that I want to get highly political, but could we imagine what would happen to the US if Sara Palin or Michele Bachmann ended up getting elected?
Granted, these women are no-where near the same league as Thatcher. But we should always remember that Thatcher is remembered, and respected because of the things she’s done, and stood for, not because “she was a woman”.
I recently watched the movie and have to say, first of all, that Meryl Streep was just fantastic. I later read that she, as a woman, had also been very much inspired by Thatcher’s determination. I do wish we, in the US, gave women more chances to lead. And even if that doesn’t happen “naturally”, I hope that Thatcher’s courage still inspires women to go at and make change happen!
Margaret Thatcher seems like one of the few women made her dreams come true in the political world through her passion. Margaret stood as an example to show that norms can’t stop your progress in career. Just by nature in most of the countries women were asked to stay at home do take care of kids and home. There was this non-superiority/non-equality was set into the minds of women. But culture is changing atleast in the developed countries and developing countries. Women are taking time (which is normal) to really compete in the political world, but there is a huge progress and change compared to past. If you see many Asian countries have powerful women leaders that are leading parties and countries.
What I dont understand is how youre not even more popular than you are now. Youre just so intelligent. You know so much about this subject, made me think about it from so many different angles. Its like people arent interested unless it has something to do with Lady Gaga! Your stuffs great. Keep it up!