iron lady

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

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.

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.