EQ4: How has the world been impacted by female political leaders? (Let’s talk about chicks, Man!) Key Terms: “Iron Lady”, Golda Meir, Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi

Iron Lady is a nickname that has frequently been used to describe female heads of government around the world. The term describes a "strong willed" woman. David Ben-Gurion Golda Meir was one of the founders of the State of Israel. Meir served as the fourth Prime Minister of Israel from 1969 to 1974. As the BBC put it, Golda Meir was the "Iron Lady" of Israeli politics. David Ben-Gurion, the nation's first Prime Minister, once described her as "the only man in the Cabinet." She was Israel's first (and, to date, only) female Prime Minister, and was the third female Prime Minister in the world.

The most famous woman politician to earn this nickname was Margaret Thatcher. She served as British Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990 and leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 until 1990, being the first (and, to date, only) woman to hold either post. She was the first woman to lead a major political party in the UK, and the first of only three women to have held any of the four great offices of state. She made a speech in 1976 in which she made a scathing attack on the Soviet Union. In response, the Soviet Defense Ministry newspaper Red Star gave her the nickname "Iron Lady.” She took delight in the name and it soon became associated with her image as having an unwavering and steadfast character. Margaret Thatcher

Indira Gandhi (1917-1984) was an Indian politician who served as Prime Minister of India for three consecutive terms from 1966 to 1977 and for a fourth term from 1980 until her assassination in 1984. Born in the politically influential Nehru dynasty, she served her father unofficially as a personal assistant. She became increasingly involved in an escalating conflict with separatists in Punjab that led to assassination by her own bodyguards in 1984. Indira Gandhi Jawaharlal Nehru (1889 –1964), Indira Gandhi’s father, was a political leader of the Indian National Congress, a pivotal figure in the Indian independence movement and the first Prime Minister of Independent India.

A young Indira Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi, during one of the latter's fasts Indira and Mahatma Gandhi circa the 1930s