Remembering The Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher
by Dalitso Njolinjo
As Americans rightly feel proud of their collective ‘achievement’ in electing their first non-white-male president, I am left wondering why hasn’t there been any mention of the greatest ground breaker of modern times – a leader who not only produced cracks on the “highest glass ceiling” as the suit pants lady put it, but a leader who shattered it into millions of pieces.
Of course I am talking about the Iron Lady herself, Margaret Thatcher.
They say Obama transcends race, well in a society as sexist as the British was (reference to comedy sketches of the 60’s-70’s and ‘Carry On’ films), I would argue it was more of achievement for Thatcher to get elected under the umbrella of the biggest boys club of them all, the British Conservative Party.
Now as a black African male myself, I truly believe that Obama’s election is one of historic proportions and believe that his presidency changes the conversation about race in most western countries, let alone America – but Margret Thatcher’s premiership saw to it that the prodigious views that every society had against women needed to be reassessed. The problem is that our fourth estate (both American and British) did not take advantage of such a breakthrough by discussing gender disparities within the country and western society – instead they sought to paint Ms Thatcher as the anti-woman, they sought to paint her as just another man who happened to have a female anatomy.
Ms Thatcher was a dedicated mother and a faithful wife who just happened to excel at what she did best. It was because she was better at her job then all of the men in her political party that they sought to take away her humanity and paint her as sub-human, asexual, heartless being, AKA the Iron Lady. She did not push back on this characterization, I would bet you a fair amount that there was an adviser or two telling her to transcend gender and let that particular conversation go.
She may be vilified by the mining community (or what is left of it anyway), but I believe she was brave enough and had the foresight to stand up and tell the mining industry to its face that, as they were structured, they were not sustainable and if the Government were to carry on bank rolling them would detrimental to the interest of the British people.
Could Gordon Brown or Barack Obama say that to the banking industry today?
The truth is that Ms Thatcher had more courage and was more forthcoming than any of her contempories and you could argue her successors. But her greatest failing was the fact that she allowed her time in power to pass without leading Britain into an honest conversation about gender. We had gone 2 decades before Angela Merkel appeared in Germany, where she is known as the German Iron Lady.
Mr Obama should use her success and her failings to find the conviction to lead the western countries into a frank conversation on moral issues such as race. These conversations are important to have, otherwise we might find ourselves 2 decades into the future without another Obama.
Dalitso Njolinjo lives in Northamptonshire, England. He is an spiring writer and communications consultant. He writes that he “enjoys all things politics, sports and French. The ungodly trinity.”