Empowerment

Women Empowerment

Legacy Of The Women Rights Movement: The Womens Rights Movement first launched in Seneca Falls, NY at the Women Rights Convention in 1848. Since then women have fought hard for the change that has become today. It has not been an easy fight with much planning and organization for lectures, marches, petitions, lobbies, and parades paving the way for new ground to be broken.
Young women and girls today have no idea of the struggles of the generations of women before them. Many have taken for granted their right to vote and their fight to be equal. It is something that should be taught in depth in our high school history books. With knowledge comes power and the young women today should know and never forget the battles that have been fought for them. Popular personalities who dedicated their lives on women rights & empowerment are:
*** Google pays great tribute to Muthulakshmi Reddi, the woman of many firsts of India. She was born in 1883 in TN, became first woman to work as a surgeon in a Govt hospital & first female Legislator in British India. #NaariShakti 
30th July: Tamil Nadu Celebrate 'Hospital Day' on Muthulakshmi Reddi Birth Anniversary

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The Government of India had ushered in the new millennium by declaring the year 2001 as 'Women's Empowerment Year' to focus on a vision 'where women are equal partners like men'. The most common explanation of 'women's empowerment' is the ability to exercise full control over one's actions. The last decades have witnessed some basic changes in the status and role of women in our society. There has been shift in policy approaches from the concept of 'welfare' in the seventies to 'development' in the eighties and now to 'empowerment' in the nineties. This process has been further accelerated with some sections of women becoming increasingly self-conscious of their discrimination in several areas of family and public life. They are also in a position to mobilize themselves on issues that can affect their overall position.
Women Empowerment refers to increasing the spiritual, political, social or economic strength of Women. It often involves the empowered developing confidence in their own capacities. Empowerment is probably the totality of the following or similar capabilities:
  • Having decision-making power of their own
  • Having access to information and resources for taking proper decision
  • Having a range of options from which you can make choices (not just yes/no, either/or.)
  • Ability to exercise assertiveness in collective decision making
  • Having positive thinking on the ability to make change
  • Ability to learn skills for improving one's personal or group power.
  • Ability to change others' perceptions by democratic means.
  • Involving in the growth process and changes that is never ending and self-initiated
  • Increasing one's positive self-image and overcoming stigma
Dr. Muthulakshmi Reddi and Annie Besant were the popular personalities who worked on Women empowerment in India. Read more about them below:
Dr. Muthulakshmi Reddi (30 July 1886 - 22 July 1968 Madras) was an eminent medical practitioner, social reformer and Padma Bhushan awardee in India. She devoted herself for the upliftment of Women and children. Her two outstanding monumental gifts for humanity are the Avvai Home (for children) and the (Adyar) Cancer Institute (second of its kind in India and the first in south India). She was the prime mover behind the legislation that abolished the devadasi system in 1929 and played a keen role in raising the minimum marriage age for women in India.Read more about her at wikipedia, at,theHinhu. She had many firsts to her recognition:
  • First legislator in India
  • First girl student to be admitted into a Men's College
  • First Women House Surgeon
  • First Women Legislator & first woman in the world to become the Vice-President of a Legislature !!
  • First chairperson of the State Social Welfare Board
Annie Besant (1 October 1847 - 20 September 1933): was a prominent Theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator and supporter of Irish and Indian self rule. Read more at wikipedia
  • Involved with Union organisers: the Bloody Sunday riot, the London matchgirls strike of 1888 ,
  • Leading speaker for the Fabian Society and the (Marxist) Social Democratic Federation
  • She travelled to India and in 1898 helped establish the Central Hindu College (varanasi) in India. (Aim: build a new leadership)
  • In 1902 she established the International Order of Co-Freemasonry in England
  • In 1908 Annie Besant became President of the Theosophical Society
  • She also involved in politics in India, joining the Indian National Congress.
  • In 1916 Annie launched the Home Rule League... For the first time India had a political party to fight for change.
Years to remember:
  • Kittur Chennamma(1778 - 1829) was the queen of the princely state of Kittur in Karnataka. she led an armed rebellion against the British rule.
  • Keladi Chennamma(1650) the queen of Keladi Nayaka dynasty who fought the Mughal Army of Aurangzeb from her base in the kingdom of Keladi in the Shimoga district of Karnataka State, India
  • Rani Lakshmibai:The Rani (Queen) of Jhansi (1835 - 1858), known as Jhansi Ki Rani, the queen of the Maratha-ruled princely state of Jhansi, was one of the leading figures of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, and a symbol of resistance to British rule in India.
  • Timeline:The steady change in their position can be highlighted by looking at what has been achieved by women in the country.
    1879: The Bethune College is the first women's college in India.
    1883: Chandramukhi Basu and Kadambini Ganguly became the first female graduates of India and the British Empire.
    1905: Suzanne RD Tata becomes the first Indian woman to drive a car.
    1916: The first women's university, SNDT Women's University, by the social reformer Dhondo Keshav Karve with just five students.
    1917: Annie Besant became the first female president of the Indian National Congress.
    1919: Pandita Ramabai became the first Indian woman to be awarded the Kaiser-i-Hind by the British Raj (For her distinguished social service)
    1925: Sarojini Naidu became the first Indian born female president of the Indian National Congress
    1927: The All India Women's Conference was founded.
    1944: Asima Chatterjee became the first Indian woman to be conferred the Doctorate of Science by an Indian university
    1947: Sarojini Naidu became the governor of the United Provinces, and in the process became India's first woman governor.
    1951: Prem Mathur becomes the first Indian women commercial pilot of the Deccan Airways
    1953: Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit became the first woman (and first Indian) president of the United Nations General Assembly
    1959: Anna Chandy becomes the first Indian woman judge of a High Court (Kerala High Court)
    1963: Sucheta Kriplani became the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, the first woman to hold that position in any Indian state.
    1966: Captain Durga Banerjee becomes the first Indian woman pilot of the state airline, Indian Airlines.
    1966: Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay wins Ramon Magsaysay award for community leadership.
    1966: Indira Gandhi becomes the first woman Prime Minister of India
    1970: Kamaljit Sandhu becomes the first Indian woman to win a Gold in the Asian Games
    1972: Kiran Bedi becomes the first female recruit to join the Indian Police Service.
    1979: Mother Teresa wins the Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the first Indian female citizen to do so.
    1984: Bachendri Pal became the first Indian woman to climb Mount Everest.
    1989: Justice M. Fathima Beevi becomes the first woman judge of the Supreme Court of India.
    1997: Kalpana Chawla becomes the first India-born woman to go into space.
    1992: Priya Jhingan becomes the first lady cadet to join the Indian Army
    2000: Karnam Malleswari became the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal
    2002: Lakshmi Sahgal became the first Indian woman to run for the post of President of India.
    2004: Punita Arora became the first woman in the Indian Army to don the highest rank of Lieutenant General.
    2007: Pratibha Patil becomes the first woman President of India.
    2008: Renu Khator became the first India born woman to lead a major American university, the University of Houston.
    2009: Meira Kumar became the first woman Speaker of Lok Sabha, the lower house in Indian Parliament
Useful Links
Diversity
IBM WorkLife
GWLF
GWLF@IBM
Womens Day
India's Most Powerful Businesswomen (Forbes)
  • Indu Jain of privately held Bennett Coleman, India's biggest media house, have even reached billionaire status.
  • Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw started one of India's first biotech companies, Biocon
  • Naina Lal Kidwai is Group General Manager and Country Head of the HSBC Group in India, which employs 35,000 people
  • Lalita Gupte and Kalpana Morparia run India's second-largest bank, ICICI Bank
  • Simone Tata built one of the first indigenous cosmetic brands, Lakme.
  • And Anu Aga turned around an ailing company, the engineering firm Thermax Group
  • Priya Paul became the president of Apeejay Surrendra Group at the age of 24.
  • Sulajja Firodia Motwani, managing director of Kinetic Motors.

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