Margaret Hilda Thatcher
“铁娘子”——玛格丽特·希达尔·撒切尔

Margaret Hilda Thatcher (1925-2013) was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and the Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the longest-serving British Prime Minister of the 20th century and is the only woman to have held the office. A Soviet journalist called her the “Iron Lady”, a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style.
玛格丽特·希达尔·撒切尔(1925—2013)，于1979年至1990年担任英国首相，1975年至1990年担任英国保守党领袖。她是20世纪任职时间最长的英国首相，也是英国唯一一位女首相。因其强硬的政治手腕和领导风格，一位苏联记者将其戏称为“铁娘子”。

Originally a research chemist before becoming a barrister, Thatcher was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Finchley in 1959. Edward Heath appointed her Secretary of State for Education and Science in his 1970 government. In 1975, Thatcher defeated Heath in the Conservative Party leadership election to become Leader of the Opposition and became the first woman to lead a major political party in the United Kingdom. She became Prime Minister after winning the 1979 general election.
撒切尔夫人在成为辩护律师之前是一名化学研究员，直至1959年被选举成为英国芬奇利的下议院议员。1970年爱德华·希斯内阁任命她为教育及科学大臣。1975年，撒切尔夫人在保守党领袖选举中击败希斯成为反对党领袖，也是英国主要政党的首位女领导人。1979年大选中，撒切尔夫人胜出并成为英国首相。

Thatcher was re-elected for a third term in 1987. After retiring from the Commons in 1992, she was given a life peerage as Baroness Thatcher, of Kesteven in the county of Lincolnshire, which entitled her to sit in the House of Lords. After a series of small strokes in 2002, she was advised to withdraw from public speaking, and in 2013 she died of another stroke in London at the age of eighty-seven.
撒切尔夫人在1987年第三度当选。自1992年从英国国会下院退休之后，她被授予“林肯郡凯斯蒂文女爵”终身贵族爵位，并授权她加入上议院。在2002年遭受几次轻微中风之后，她不再发表任何公开演说。2013年她在伦敦因中风去世，享年87岁。