The Iron Lady is a 2011 biographical drama film based on the life and career of Margaret Thatcher, a British politician who was the longest-serving Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of the 20th century and the first woman to hold the office.

In a series of flashbacks, the audience is presented with a young Margaret Roberts working at the family grocer's shop in Grantham, listening to the political speeches of her father, whom she idolised – it is also hinted that she had a poor relationship with her mother, a housewife.

We learn she has won a place at Somerville College, Oxford University, revealing that her interests toward Politics rather than Chemistry and her struggle as a young lower-middle-class woman attempting to break into a snobbish male-dominated Conservative Party and find a seat in the House of Commons.

She meets affluent businessman Denis Thatcher who is impressed by her eloquence and asks her to marry him; she accepts, but only after telling him she will not be satisfied to look beautiful at his side and be a mere housewife and mother: "I don't want to die cleaning a teacup."

Her struggles to fit in as a "Lady Member" of the House and as Education Secretary in Edward Heath's Cabinet are also shown, as are her friendship with Airey Neave, her decision to stand for Leader of the Conservative Party, her eventual victory, including her voice coaching and image change.

Further flashbacks examine historical events during her time as Prime Minister, after winning the 1979 General Election, including the rising unemployment related to her monetarist policies and the tight 1981 budget (over the misgivings of "wet" members of her Cabinet – Ian Gilmour, Francis Pym, Michael Heseltine, and Jim Prior), the 1981 Brixton riot, the 1984–1985 UK miners' strike, and the bombing in Brighton of the Grand Hotel during the 1984 Conservative Party Conference, when she and her husband were almost killed.

Also shown, slightly out of chronological sequence, is her decision to retake the Falkland Islands following the invasion by Argentina in 1982, the sinking of the ARA General Belgrano and Britain's subsequent victory, her friendship with U.S. President Ronald Reagan aiding her emergence as a world figure, and the economic boom of the late 1980s.

By 1990, Thatcher is shown as an imperious but ageing figure, ranting aggressively at her cabinet, refusing to accept that the "Poll Tax" is unjust, even while it is causing riots, and fiercely opposed to European integration.

The Labour Party leader Michael Foot is depicted as criticising the decision to send a task force to the Falkland Islands, and Thatcher is shown admonishing him in the wake of Britain's victory over Argentina.

[9] Karen Sue Smith of America wrote that "by combining the Baroness's real roles of wife, mother and leader, the film's portrait of her does what many purported 'lives of great men' fail to do – namely, show the person in context, in the quotidian.

In an interview with the BBC, then Prime Minister David Cameron described Streep's performance as "great" and "fantastic" but opined that the filmmakers should have waited before making the movie and focused more on Thatcher's time in office rather than her personal life and struggles with dementia.

[34] Not included on the soundtrack album or listings, although credited among the eight songs at the end of the film, is "I'm in Love with Margaret Thatcher" by Burnley punk band Notsensibles, which was re-released as a single due to the publicity.

The special features in the DVD include Making The Iron Lady, Bonus Featurettes, Recreating the Young Margaret Thatcher, Battle in the House of Commons, Costume Design: Pearls and Power Suits, Denis: The Man Behind the Woman.