Margaret Beckett's appointment as Britain's first female foreign secretary means two of the world's most powerful diplomatic jobs are now held by women.

Former British Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Margaret Beckett leaves 10 Downing Street in London. Beckett's appointment as Britain's first female foreign secretary means two of the world's most powerful diplomatic jobs are now held by women. [AFP]

The 63-year-old former environment secretary shares with US Secretary of State

Condoleezza Rice the same steely determination and political acumen with unflinching support for their bosses as well as an academic background.

But whereas power-dressing singleton Rice combines the refined pleasures of classical music with early-morning gym workouts, Beckett is more likely to be found in a casual fleece jacket, pottering about in her caravan (camping trailer) in the countryside with devoted husband Leo.

Known as the Labour Party's "great survivor" because of her stubborn refusal to be cowed by setbacks, Beckett was born Margaret Mary Jackson in Ashton-under-Lyne, near Manchester, northwest England, on January 15, 1943.

A qualified metallurgist, her political roots were cast while an apprentice engineer following the Sharpeville massacre in March 1960 during the apartheid era in South Africa.

After joining the powerful Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU), to which she has remained loyal for more than 40 years, she went on to become a Labour Party researcher in 1970.

Four years years later, she fought, and narrowly lost, her first general election for Labour. When another election was called seven months later, she was victorious and represented Lincoln, eastern England, for six years.

When Conservative leader Margaret Thatcher became Britain's first woman prime minister in 1979 in the wake of widespread disaffection at Labour's inability to curb strikes and the economy, Beckett became a television researcher.

In the same year, she married her political mentor, Leo Beckett, then the chairman of her local Labour Party.

By 1980, Beckett had began her ascent through the ranks of the embattled Labour Party, becoming a member of its ruling National Executive Committee.

At the time, she was a noted left-winger, supporting the veteran Labour MP Tony Benn in his bid for the party leadership in 1981.

In 1983, Beckett was back in parliament as MP for Derby South, in central England, but began to moderate her views as the party sought to distance itself from the "loony left" fringe that dogged its reputation in the 1980s.

By 1988, the now front-bench social security spokeswoman had switched allegiances from Benn to Neil Kinnock in his successful bid for the leadership and was rewarded with a shadow cabinet post in 1989.

She became the party's deputy leader in 1992 -- the first woman to hold the post -- and was shadow leader of the House of Commons during the late John Smith's prematurely short tenure as Labour leader.

When Smith died suddenly of a heart attack in 1994, she became acting party leader, but was pipped for selection in the subsequent leadership campaign by

Tony Blair, even though Labour's popularity was soaring under her stewardship.

Blair appointed Beckett his trade and industry secretary following Labour's landslide 1997 election win and Leader of the House of Commons in 1998, where she remained until being handed the tricky environment brief in 2001.

During that time, she has juggled a wide-ranging portfolio of issues from climate change to animal health and attracted the ire of British farmers, who accuse her of failing to stand up for their rights to foreign competitors.

But Beckett -- dubbed Rosa Klebb by satirical magazine Private Eye after the James Bond villain -- has rebuffed critics with the stubborn fierceness culled from years of political disappointment.