Golda Meir (lahir Golda Mabovitz; pada lahir 3 Mei 1898 – meninggal 8 Desember 1978 pada umur 80 tahun) adalah salah seorang pendiri negara Israel. Meir pernah menjabat sebagai Menteri Perburuhan, Menteri Luar Negeri, dan Perdana Menteri keempat Israel pada periode 17 Maret 1969 - 3 Juni 1974. Sebagaimana dikatakan oleh BBC, Golda Meir adalah "Wanita Besi" dalam politik Israel jauh sebelum ungkapan itu diciptakan untuk Margaret Thatcher. David Ben-Gurion pernah menggambarkannya sebagai "satu-satunya lelaki di dalam Kabinet (Israel)." Ia adalah perempuan pertama (dan hingga kini satu-satunya) yang menjadi Perdana Menteri Israel, dan PM perempuan ketiga di dunia.Meir lahir dengan nama Golda Mabovitch, di Kiev, Imperium Rusia (kini Ukraina), dari pasangan Blume Naiditch dan Moshe Mabovitz. Ia menulis dalam otobiografinya bahwa kenangan yang paling awal ialah tentang ayahnya yang melapisi pintu depan rumahnya ketika mendengar desas-desus tentang akan segera terjadinya pogrom. Kondisi kehidupan di Daerah Pemukiman sangat berat. Ia dan kedua saudara perempuannya (Sheyna dan Tzipke) seringkali kelaparan dan kedinginan. Kelima saudaranya yang lain telah meninggal dunia di masa kecil mereka. Gola khususnya sangat menghormati Sheyna. Ayahnya pergi ke Amerika Serikat pada 1903, sementara sisa keluarganya menetap di Pinsk. Kakak Gola tertua terlibat dalam kegiatan revolusioner Zionis, yang membahayakannya. Hal itu sangat mengesankan Golda yang masih muda, namun seluruh keluarganya didorong untuk mengikuti jejak Moshe ke Amerika Serikat pada 1906.
Setelah Levi Eshkol meninggal dunia secara tiba-tiba pada 26 Februari 1969, partai memilih Meir untuk menggantikannya sebagai Perdana Menteri. Meir kembali aktif berdinas pada 17 Maret dan menjabat sebagai Perdana Menteri hingga 1974. Ketika Meir naik ke kursi Perdana Menteri, Israel diliputi oleh rasa percaya diri, karena baru menang telak atas negara-negara Arab dan merebut banyak wilayah dalam Perang Enam Hari. Namun, Meir harus menghadapi tembakan terus-menerus oleh Mesir terhadap pasukan-pasukan Israel di sepanjang Terusan Suez dalam Perang Perlahan-lahan.
Setelah Perang Yom Kippur 1973, pemerintahan Meir terganggu oleh pertikaian intern di antara partai-partai koalisi yang berkuasa dan harus menghadapi pertanyaan-pertanyaan serius tentang kekeliruan penilaian yang strategis serta kurangnya kepemimpinan umum yang menyebabkan ketidaksiapan pada permulaan Perang Yom Kippur. Pada 11 April 1974, Golda Meir mengundurkan diri sebagai Perdana Menteri dan digantikan oleh Yitzhak Rabin pada 3 Juni 1974. Pada 8 Desember 1978, Golda Meir meninggal karena kanker di Yerusalem pada usia 80 tahun. ia dimakamkan di Bukit Herzl, di Yerusalem.
Golda Meir (earlier Golda Meyerson, born Golda Mabovitch, Голда Мабович; May 3, 1898 – December 8, 1978) was an Israeli teacher, kibbutznik, politician and the fourth Prime Minister of Israel. Meir was elected Prime Minister of Israel on March 17, 1969, after serving as Minister of Labour and Foreign Minister.[3] Israel's first and the world's fourth woman to hold such an office, she was described as the "Iron Lady" of Israeli politics years before the epithet became associated with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.[4] Former Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion used to call Meir "the best man in the government"; she was often portrayed as the "strong-willed, straight-talking, grey-bunned grandmother of the Jewish people". Meir resigned as prime minister in 1974, the year following the Yom Kippur War. She died in 1978 of lymphoma.
Golda Mabovitch (Ukrainian: Ґольда Мабович) was born on May 3, 1898, in Kiev, Russian Empire, present-day Ukraine, to Blume Neiditch (died 1951) and Moshe Mabovitch (died 1944), a carpenter. Meir wrote in her autobiography that her earliest memories were of her father boarding up the front door in response to rumours of an imminent pogrom. She had two sisters, Sheyna (died 1972) and Tzipke (died 1981), as well as five other siblings who died in childhood. She was especially close to Sheyna. Moshe Mabovitch left to find work in New York City in 1903. In his absence, the rest of the family moved to Pinsk to join her mother's family. In 1905, Moshe moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in search of higher-paying work and found employment in the workshops of the local railroad yard. The following year, he had saved up enough money to bring his family to the United States.
Blume ran a grocery store on Milwaukee's north side, where by age eight Golda had been put in charge of watching the store when her mother went to the market for supplies. Golda attended the Fourth Street Grade School (now Golda Meir School) from 1906 to 1912. A leader early on, she organised a fund raiser to pay for her classmates' textbooks. After forming the American Young Sisters Society, she rented a hall and scheduled a public meeting for the event. She went on to graduate as valedictorian of her class, despite not knowing English at the beginning of her schooling.
At 14, she studied at North Division High School and worked part-time. Her mother wanted her to leave school and marry, but she demurred. She bought a train ticket to Denver, Colorado, and went to live with her married sister, Sheyna Korngold. The Korngolds held intellectual evenings at their home, where Meir was exposed to debates on Zionism, literature, women's suffrage, trade unionism, and more. In her autobiography, she wrote: "To the extent that my own future convictions were shaped and given form [...] those talk-filled nights in Denver played a considerable role." In Denver, she also met Morris Meyerson (December 17, 1893 – May 25, 1951), a sign painter, whom she later married on December 24, 1917.
