Exercising a powerful influence

MARGARET THATCHER was the most forceful and influential post-war British prime minister.

Sixty years after women won the vote in these islands, she became the first democratically elected woman leader in the western world, without the benefit of any hereditary advantages.

A male-dominated political world did not know how to handle her. In 1975, she challenged Ted Heath after two lost elections for the leadership of the Conservative party and won. He never forgave her.