Important People (Hannah)

Margaret Thatcher, prime minister of Great Britain, was the first woman to be elected to lead a major European power. Gaining power in 1979, Margaret Thatcher's actions are the best illustration of the effects of neoliberal policies. Economically, she hoped to reduce the role of government, unleashing a series of free-market policies. The government cut spending on health care, education, and public housing; it also reduced taxes and created a whole new class of property owners. She created a greater reliance on private enterprise and free market, believing governments created inflation by printing too much money. These policies widened the gap between rich and poor, creating poverty and an increase in interest rates and unemployment. Her popularity decreased but she kept her position as prime minister with her aggressive foreign policy. A speech against communism earned her the nickname “the iron lady” in a Red Army newspaper, which she embraced and used to her advantage. She was elected to a third term in 1987, and she worked extremely well with Ronald Reagan. She was replaced in 1990, but her influence on the British economy and ideals still exist today.

Simone de Beauvoir was a French writer and philosopher who wrote The Second Sex in 1949. She worked with nihilistic philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre and argued that women were trapped by limiting conditions. She said that only through boldness and assertiveness could women escape the role that was created for their gender. Beauvoir thought that men and women could establish free and equal unions, not marriages that took part in constraining women to their “role.” She inspired a huge feminist movement that took hold in the 1960s and 1970s, and paved the way for Betty Friedan to write The Feminine Mystique in 1963.

Mikhail Gorbachev, the Russian successor to Yuri Andropov, was the most vigorous Soviet leader in a generation. He was a strong believer in communism, but he realized it needed reforming to work in the Soviet Union. He was trained as a lawyer and became a Communist Party official. He was considered smart, charming, tough, and an idealist. He attacked corruption and incompetence in the government, consolidated his power, and condemned alcoholism and drunkenness. Three famous reforms are attributed to Gorbachev. He launched an economic restructuring referred to as perestroika, a relaxation on censorship and an invitation for a degree of openness called glasnost, and a democratization campaign that led to free elections and a greater civil society. Although he launched his actions in order to save communism and raise the Soviet Union back to the West's level, he was one of the greatest factors in destroying communism in Russia.