iron lady

plural iron ladies

1. A strong-willed and unrelenting female leader.

   On the one hand, the patriarchal discourse constructs the identity of 'an iron lady' for the successful woman leader.

   2002 October, AM Lämsä, T Tiensuu, “Representations of the woman leader in Finnish business media articles”, in Business Ethics: A European Review

   2 more examples

   Stories about Biljana Plavsic also contain the monster narrative. Emphasis on her toughness and her nickname 'iron lady' hint at a monster characterization, but these images are much more obvious in the emphasis on the view that Plavsic is lacking in mental balance.

   2007, Laura Sjoberg, Caron E. Gentry, Mothers, Monsters, Whores: Women's Violence in Global Politics, →ISBN, page 156

   Del Ponte only takes the blame for the last incident, acknowledging that she realized too late that she had been played by the “iron lady” from Republica Srpska.

   2009, David P Forsythe, Encyclopedia of Human Rights - Volume 1, →ISBN, page 485

2. alternativeAlternative form of iron maiden.

   But the best torture of all was the iron lady; it was a box in the shape of a lady sitting down.

   2011, F.D. Land, Nightmares - Book 5, →ISBN, page 171

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   It tried one's nerves to look on the rack that had pulled men to pieces, on the "iron lady" which opened in front and then embraced and crushed her victim with sharp spikes, and on the sword that had cut off hundreds of heads.

   1908, James Henry Snowden, A Summer Across the Sea, page 80

   In a castle dungeon in Nuremberg, Germany is a huge, medieval "iron lady" torture device. Shaped like a woman, the iron lady opens to reveal huge spikes, once used for torture and death.

   1952, Otto C. Lightner, Pearl Ann Reeder, Hobbies - Volume 57, Issues 1-8, page 40

3. archaicA sewing machine.

   But, the iron lady's needle is not like the instrument of a flesh and blood seamstress.

   1854, Country Gentleman - Volume 3, page 206

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   In the delicate parts of work -- in those mysteries known to the erudite as flounces, gussets, frills, and tucks -- in the learned complications of the herringbone system, and the homely art of darning -- we imagine that the iron lady is not proficient.

   1854, Charles Dickens, Household Words - Volume 8, page 576

   Not only thin materials, but Johnny's jeans and corduroys, which the old iron lady used to chew up and swallow and then just moan and die on.

   2014, Taylor, American Geisha, →ISBN, page 22

1. A nickname given to various female leaders, indicating that they are strong-willed and unyielding.

   (see title)

   2008, Elinor Burkett, Golda Meir: The Iron Lady of the Middle East, →ISBN

   2 more examples

   Known as the "Serbian Iron Lady" as a result of her hard-line nationalism and rabidly anti-Muslim views, Plavsic was a close ally of Radovan Karadzic.

   2003, Nancy Amoury Combs, “International Decisions: Prosecutor v. Plavsic”, in American Journal of International Law, volume 97, page 929

   Like her husband, Simone—once called the Iron Lady and known for her fiery speeches—faced four counts of crimes against humanity for being an indirect co-perpetrator in murder, rape, and other sexual violence, as well as a range of other inhumane acts.

   2016, Eric Stover, Victor Peskin, Alexa Koenig, Hiding in Plain Sight: The Pursuit of War Criminals from Nuremberg, →ISBN, page 322

   1. especiallyMargaret Thatcher.

      On the lawn of the White House, with the Iron Lady beside him, Reagan may have pledged that Britain and the USA would 'stand side by side' in defending freedom -- just so long as it was on US terms.

      2003, David Powell, Tony Benn New Edition, →ISBN, page 159

      3 more examples

      On 16 October 1998, twenty-five years after he left the presidential palace in Santiago to tell the world the story of the Chilean Revolution, Joan Garcés sent to the Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón a petition asking for the urgent questioning of General Augusto Pinochet, who was preparing to leave London after a back operation and afternoon tea with his admirer, ex-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Over tea and scones, an older Pinochet told the Iron Lady that opinion polls predicted that Chile could have its first socialist president since 1973.

      2013, Oscar Guardiola-Rivera, Story of a Death Foretold: The Coup Against Salvador Allende, 11 September 1973, →ISBN, page 376

      Using the metaphor of metalurgy he had deployed in the epic parliamentary debate at the start of the war, he rose at Prime Minister's Questions on 17 June to remind the House how he had predicted that the Falklands crisis should determine what metal the Iron Lady was made of.

      2013, Jonathan Aitken, Margaret Thatcher: Power and Personality, →ISBN, page 372

      In March 1981, she was put to the test for the first time: Bobby Sands (1954-1981), an Irish republican prisoner, and his comrades began a hunger strike in order to obtain the status of political prisoners, thus showing their desire to receive better treatment. But the Iron Lady remained unmoved and ignored their request.

      2017, Margaret Thatcher: The Iron Lady, →ISBN

2. The iron maiden at Nuremberg.

   The Iron Lady has iron spikes and I don't need holes for air-conditioning my body.

   2008, Ginger Reid-Parker, D. H. Reid, Stepping Stones to Injustice, →ISBN, page 438

   3 more examples

   As Mrs. Degen stoutly declared, those seeking German embraces would do well to remember the Iron Lady of Nuremberg.

   1918, The Sketch - Volume 102, page 232

   The enterprising young reporter jubilantly began constructing a substantial iron net on the frail foundation of circumstantial evidence and that net began to close as tight as the Iron Lady of Nuremburg^([sic]) round Dean Cardigan.

   1922, The Cosmopolitan - Volume 72, page 21

   Then it was arranged that I should do a short tour of the unspoilt medieval towns of northern Bavaria – Bamberg, Rothenburg and Nuremberg where I saw the original machine of torture, the 'Iron Lady', with its horrific spikes all pointing inwards from the metal shell.

   1993, Henry Colyton, Occasion, chance and change: a memoir 1902-1946, pages 36–37