Women Achievers

March 8 is International Women’s Day and it is befitting that BW Businessworld should bring out a special issue focused on the theme of ‘Women Achievers’. So, I am taking a break from my ‘sustainability series’, to share my thoughts on this very important topic. Empowerment of women is crucial for the growth of our society and, happily, during the last few years, we have seen a rapidly increasing number of women distinguishing themselves in various walks of life. Be it sports or defence services or space exploration or economics or the corporate world – we have seen women shattering the glass ceiling again and again to emerge right on top.

It will not be wrong to say that gender bias is disappearing and there are no limits for anyone who has fire in the belly and is prepared to work hard with determination and dedication. Mithali Raj, Mary Kom, Arunima Sinha, Deepa Malik, Kalpana Chawla, Gita Gopinath, Leena Nair and several others are now household names. Our media is alive to the fact that the stratospheric world of ‘high achievers’ is no longer the exclusive preserve of men. Much has been written about women achievers and rightly so.

For the purpose of this column, even if for the sake of only a different perspective, I want to go back in time to our mythology, ancient history, the pre-independence era and the pioneering women in independent India. I will also endeavour to reflect on how these women achieved greatness and what differentiated them from others.

Let me begin with our most revered mythological Goddess Sita. If one is to believe the learned author Amish Tripathi (IIM Kolkata educated and a financial services honcho, who found his true calling after 14 years and became a celebrated author of ‘The Shiva Trilogy’ and ‘Ram Chandra Series’) –in Amish’s Sita – the Warrior of Mithila, Sita didn’t achieve greatness and immortality only because she married Lord Ram but she was, in her own right, a highly accomplished and gifted person. Found as an abandoned baby in 3400 BC, she was adopted by the ruler of Mithila. By her exceptional intellect, hard work, determination and great leadership qualities she rose to become the chief of her father’s army and prime minister of the kingdom before Ram won her hand in a swayamvar.

In her husband’s home, her unconditional love for him and his family and a huge sacrifice in accompanying him for the 14-year banishment to forests endeared her to everyone and she became the epitome of everything that is good and proper in life. Amish may be writing fiction and yet his books have teachings as the engaging stories are based on (a) his upbringing in a family of pandas of Kashi (b) deep research of mythology (c) his passion for history and philosophy and (d) an innate craving for finding beauty in all religions. His books give us a glimpse of life from a very different angle and not only make us believe all that he writes but also draw lessons from the same as I have done about the great Goddess Sita. And, there are others in our rich mythology – Parvathi and Durga to name just two –  whose lives are equally inspirational.

Rani Abbaka Chowta
I will now move to some exemplary achievers from recorded history, most of whom have been forgotten. The first name that I want to mention is Rani Abbaka Chowta, queen of Ullal (the present day Mangalore), widely acknowledged as the first female freedom fighter, who was trained from childhood to fight with a sword and had other traits like strategy and diplomacy, required to be a good ruler. The Chowtas followed the matrilineal system and she was crowned queen at a young age. She fought bravely, defeated the invading Portuguese multiple times during the 1550s; lost Ullal to them, recaptured it and finally was defeated only due to her husband’s treachery.

Bibi Dalair Kaur
 Bibi Dalair Kaur of Sirhind (now known as Fatehgarh Sahib) is another historical legend. This 17th Century warrior fought against the Moghuls and defended the Anandpur fort for a long time before being martyred.

Rani Veeramangai
Rani Veeramangai of Shivaganga (now Madurai) lived from 1769 to 1790 and for many years fought with the British rulers.

Maharani Lakshmi Bai
Undoubtedly the most famous and endeared of all and widely considered one of the first female freedom fighters – Maharani Lakshmi Bai of the Maratha state of Jhansi – who lived for just 30 years (1828 – 58) but for ten long years gloriously fought the large regiments of the British forces and was also involved in the 1857 “mutiny”, as the British liked to call our freedom struggle. Her memories are still part of our folklore and she has been an icon for generations of Indians.

19th Century Achievers
And now, let me mention some more great achievers from the 19th Century. Dr Annie Besant (1847-1933) a British socialist, first visited our country in 1893, appreciated our cause and settled down here to join the same. She became a very important part of our independence movement, launched the All India Home Rule League in 1916 along with Lokmanya Tilak and was selected as the president of the Indian National Congress in 1917. She also headed the International Theosophical Society, headquartered in Madras – where she lived till her death.

(2) Sarojini Naidu (1879-1949), a great political activist and poet.

(3) Vijayalakshmi Pandit (1900-1990) Indian diplomat and politician, served with distinction as Governor of Maharashtra, was our ambassador to the USA and the first woman president of the UN General Assembly. Admittedly she was Nehru Ji’s sister and yet her singular contributions make her an achiever in her own right.

(4) Padmaja Naidu (1900-1975) very courageously co-founded the local chapter of the Indian National Congress in the Nizam- ruled state of Hyderabad in the year 1921. She also served as Governor of West Bengal and of course

(5) Indira Gandhi (1917-84) the iron lady and prime minister of India for 15 years.

Before I close, I must mention Indra Nooyi – arguably the first Indian-American woman to head a major multinational. She came from a lower middle class family of Madras, studied at Madras Christian College and IIMC and later Yale School of Management – where she worked at the reception counter from midnight to 5 a.m. to make some money – and went on to become chairman of the board of directors of Pepsi! I think her place amongst the India born and educated, who have reached the corner office in the world’s biggest corporations, is right on top.

Today Sunder Pichai and Satya Nadella are heading much bigger conglomerates (and I hugely admire these extraordinarily brilliant guys) but the time when Indra cracked the glass ceiling – she became CEO of Pepsi in 2006 and Chairman in 2007 – it was a lot tougher to do so. Indians at that time did not command the respect they do now primarily due to the emergence of technology companies. In 2006 Nooyi was the first woman ever to lead Pepsi and also one of the only 11 female CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. A truly ‘super achiever’! Today, of course, there are several Indian women who are leading large global companies with distinction.

Names mentioned by me are by no means exhaustive and I apologise to those I have not mentioned. There are indeed many other ‘woman achievers’ – in the past and now – and I am sure women will surely share their due space in the not too distant future. Particularly in the corporate world, as well as on the frontiers of science and technology, there are many shining stars amongst women.