A story once went the rounds of Israel to the effect that Ben-Gurion described me as 'the only man' in his cabinet. What amused me about is that he (or whoever invented the story) thought that this was the greatest compliment that could be paid to a woman. I very much doubt that any man would have been flattered if I had said about him that he was the only woman in the government!

In 1917 Golda Meir took a position at a Yiddish-speaking Folks Schule in Milwaukee. Abdullah asked her not to hurry to proclaim a state. And there I was sitting down and signing a declaration of establishment.

Golda Meir (earlier Golda Meyerson born Golda Mabovich Голда Мабович; May 3 1898 – December 8 1978) was an Israeli teacher kibbutznik and politician who became the fourth Prime Minister of Israel. She died in 1978 of lymphoma. Israel's first and the world's third woman to hold such an office Golda Meir was described as the "Iron Lady" of Israeli politics years before the epithet became associated with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.