The
women who changed the world
Anar
Mamedov & Ani Goderidze
Introduction
The most famous saying said by the Pandit Jawaharlal
Nehru is “To awaken the people, it is the women who must be awakened. Once she
is on the move, the family moves, the village moves, the nation moves”.
Traditionally, men have worked outside the home and served as the sole
breadwinner for the family. They held some of the most powerful jobs in
society, including doctor, lawyer and politician. Women, on the other hand,
governed the domestic sphere. They were expected to stay home, raise children
and have an evening meal waiting for their husbands. If they did work, it was
as a secretary, a nurse or another stereotypically female profession. Women's
contribution to society was limited and controlled by men. Fortunately, men and
women's roles in society have been changing for decades now. A number of
countries are exploring measures that may increase women's participation in
government at all levels, from the local to the national. In the modern era
women are increasingly being politically elected to be heads of state and
government. Increasing women's representation in the government can empower
women and is necessary to achieve gender parity.
INDIRA PRIYADARSHI GANDHI
(1917-1984) Prime Minister of India,
1966-77, 1980-84
Childhood & Early Life
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The book “The Life of Indira Nehru Gandhi” by
Katherine Frank sheds light on some of Indira Gandhi’s other love affairs. It
is written that Indira’s first love was with her German teacher at
Shantiniketan. Later she had affair with M. O. Mathai (father’s secretary),
then Dhirendra Brahmachari (her yoga teacher) and at last with Dinesh Singh
(Foreign Minister).[1]
Marriage & Family Life
Feroze soon became a prominent force against the
corruption in the Nehru led government. He exposed a major scandal involving
prominent insurance companies and the Finance Minister T.T. Krishnamachari. On
8 September 1960, Feroze died after a major cardiac arrest.
Indira as Congress President
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Feroze and Indira Gandhi
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First Term
as Prime Minister of India
Following
the death of Lal Bahadur Shastri on 11 January 1966, in Tashkent, the race to
the coveted throne of the Prime Minister began. After much deliberation, Indira
was chosen as the Prime Ministerial candidate by the Congress high command
solely because they presumed that she could be easily manipulated. She
contested and emerged victorious during the interim elections of 1966.
Post-election, Mrs. Gandhi showed extraordinary political prowess and elbowed
the Congress stalwarts out of power. Some of the most notable achievements of
her stint as PM were proposals for the abolition of Privy Purse to former
rulers of the Princely states and the 1969 nationalization of the fourteen
largest banks in India along with four premium oil companies. She took
constructive steps towards food shortage of the country and led the country
into the nuclear age with its first underground detonation in 1974.
Indo-Pakistan
War in 1971
Imposition of Emergency
In 1975, the Opposition parties and social
activists staged regular demonstrations against the Indira Gandhi-led Central
government over rising inflation, the poor state of economy and unchecked
corruption. The same year, Allahabad High Court ruled that Indira Gandhi had
used illegal practices during the last election and this added fuel to the
existing political fire. The verdict ordered her to vacate her seat,
immediately. The agitation and anger of the people intensified. Mrs. Gandhi
instead of resigning declared "an emergency, due to the turbulent
political situation in the country" on 26 June, 1975.
Fall
from Power and Role as Opposition
During the state of emergency, her younger
son, Sanjay Gandhi, began to run the country with full-authority and ordered
forceful removal of slum dwellings, and started a highly unpopular forced
sterilization program, which was aimed at curbing India's growing population.
In 1977,
confident that she has snuffed the opposition, Indira Gandhi called for
elections. She was thrashed by the emerging Janata Dal combine, led by Morarji
Desai and Jai Prakash Narayan. Congress managed to win only 153 Lok Sabha
seats, as compared to 350 seats it had grabbed in the previous Lok Sabha.
With so
little in common among the allies of the Janata Party, the members were busy in
internal strife. In an effort to expel Indira Gandhi from the Parliament, the
Janata government ordered to arrest her. However, the strategy failed
disastrously and gained Indira Gandhi sympathy from the people who had
considered her as an autocrat just two years back. In the 1980 elections,
Congress returned to power with a landslide majority and Indira Gandhi returned
as Prime Minister of India once again. Experts viewed the victory of the
Congress as a result of inefficient and ineffective "Janata Party".
Operation Blue Star
Assassination
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Mrs. Gandhi held national office for fifteen
years and remains the world’s longest serving Prime Minister. Only two year out
of office between 1966 and her death, Mrs. Gandhi served her own interest in
political survival while serving India’s need, in her opinion, for stability.
She established India as a player on the world stage.
MARGARET THATCHER
(1925-2013)
British Prime Minister 1979-1990
Early Life
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Margaret Thatcher and her sister Muriel
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A good
student, Thatcher was accepted to Oxford University, where she studied
chemistry at Somerville College. One of her instructors was the Dorothy
Hodgkin, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist. Politically active in her youth, Thatcher
served as president of the Conservative Association at the university. She
earned a degree in chemistry in 1947, and went on to work as a research chemist
in Colchester. Later, she worked as a research chemist in Dartford.
Two years after graduating from college,
Thatcher made her first bid for public office. She ran as the conservative
candidate for a Dartford parliamentary seat in the 1950 elections. Thatcher
knew from the start that it would be nearly impossible to win the position away
from the liberal Labour Party. Still she earned the respect of her political
party peers with her speeches. Defeated, Thatcher remained undaunted, trying
again the following year, but once more her efforts were unsuccessful. Two
months after her loss, she married Denis Thatcher.
In 1952, Thatcher put politics aside
for a time to study law. She and her husband welcomed twins Carol and Mark the
next year. After completing her training, Thatcher qualified as a barrister, a
type of lawyer, in 1953. But she didn't stay away from the political arena for
too long. Thatcher won a seat in the House of Commons in 1959, representing
Finchley.
Clearly a
woman on the rise, Thatcher was appointed parliamentary under secretary for
pensions and national insurance in 1961. When the Labour Party assumed control
of the government, she became a member of what is called the Shadow Cabinet, a
group of political leaders who would hold Cabinet-level posts if their party
was in power.
Britain's First Female Premier
When Conservatives returned to office in
June 1970, Thatcher was appointed secretary of state for education and science,
and dubbed "Thatcher, milk snatcher," after her abolition of the
universal free school milk scheme. She found her position frustrating, not
because of all the bad press around her actions, but because she had difficulty
getting Prime Minister Edward Heath to listen to her ideas. Seemingly
disenchanted on the future of women in politics, Thatcher was quoted as saying,
"I don't think there will be a woman prime minister in my lifetime,"
during a 1973 television appearance.
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British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, with husband Denis and
children Mark and Carol.
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Conservative Leadership
As prime minister, Thatcher battled the
country's recession by initially raising interest rates to control inflation. She
was best known for her destruction of Britain's traditional industries through
her attacks on labor organizations such as the miner's union, and for the
massive privatization of social housing and public transport. One of her
staunchest allies was U.S. President Ronald Reagan, a fellow conservative. The
two shared similar right-wing, pro-corporate political philosophies.
Thatcher faced a military challenge during
her first term. In April 1982, Argentina invaded the Falkland islands. This
British territory had long been a source of conflict between the two nations,
as the islands are located off the coast of Argentina. Taking swift action,
Thatcher sent British troops to the territory to retake the islands in what
became known as the Falklands War. Argentina surrendered in June 1982.
In her second term, from 1983 to 1987,
Thatcher handled a number of conflicts and crises, the most jarring of which
may have been the assassination attempt against her in 1984. In a plot by the
Irish Republic Army, she was meant to be killed by a bomb planted at the
Conservative Conference in Brighton in October. Undaunted and unharmed,
Thatcher insisted that the conference continue, and gave a speech the following
day.
Resignation
Returning for a
third term in 1987, Thatcher sought to implement a standard educational
curriculum across the nation and make changes to the country's socialized
medical system. However, she lost a lot of support due to her efforts to
implement a fixed rate local tax—labeled a poll tax by many since she sought to
disenfranchise those who did not pay it. Hugely unpopular, this policy led to
public protests and caused dissention within her party.
Thatcher initially pressed on for party
leadership in 1990, but eventually yielded to pressure from party members and
announced her intentions to resign on November 22, 1990. In a statement, she
said, "Having consulted widely among colleagues, I have concluded that the
unity of the Party and the prospects of victory in a General Election would be
better served if I stood down to enable Cabinet colleagues to enter the ballot
for the leadership. I should like to thank all those in Cabinet and outside who
have given me such dedicated support." On November 28, 1990, Thatcher
departed from 10 Downing Street, the prime minister's official residence, for
the last time.
Life After Politics
Not long after leaving office, Thatcher was
appointed to the House of Lords, as Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven, in 1992. She
wrote about her experiences as a world leader and a pioneering woman in the
field of politics in two books: The Downing Street Years (1993) and The Path to
Power (1995). In 2002, she published the book Statecraft, in which she offered
her views on international politics.
Around this
time, Thatcher suffered a series of small strokes. She then suffered a great
personal loss in 2003, when her husband of more than 50 years, Denis, died. In 2005, Thatcher celebrated her 80th
birthday. A huge event was held in her honor and was attended by Queen
Elizabeth II, Tony Blair and nearly 600 other friends, family members and
former colleagues.
Final Years
and Legacy
Margaret Thatcher died on April 8, 2013, at the
age of 87. She was survived by her two children, daughter Carol and son Sir
Mark. Thatcher's policies and actions continue to be debated by detractors and
supporters alike, illustrating the indelible impression that she has left on
Britain and nations worldwide.
Assessement
Indira Gandhi and
Margaret Thatcher share specific
behavioral and character tails: strong fathers, passive mothers; lack of an an
active male consort to deflect attention from them; public images linking them
with national symbols, and a single defining event that confirms they are more
than women, more than national leaders. They are player on an international
stage. Indira Gandhi oversaw the birth of Bangladesh. Margaret Thatcher led
Britain to victory over Argentina. These
two women prove that, in the end, leadership is less a function of gender of
determination.
Reference list
2.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher
3.
http://indiragandhi.in/en/milestones
4.
https://bengalsamvad.wordpress.com/2015/07/05/some-hidden-facts-about-the-nehru-gandhi-dynasty/
5.
http://indiandefence.com/threads/hidden-secrets-of-nehru-gandhi-dynasty-a-must-read-for-all-indians.36164/
6.
https://www.margaretthatcher.org/essential/biography.asp
7.
LIswood, Laura A. Women World
Leaders: A Documentary Film. UK. 1995
8.
Malhotra, Inder. Indira Gandhi.
New Dehli:National Book Trust. 2006
9.
Berlinski, Claire. “There Is No
alternative”: Why Margaret Thetcher Matters. NY: Basic books. 2008
10. https://sites.google.com/site/gamorcheuliqalebi/partneeram
11. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2309623/Margaret-Thatchers-family-The-puritanical-father-wouldnt-pay-inside-loo.html
12. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Margaret-Thatcher
13. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-3974458/Remembering-Mrs-Gandhi-believed-Indira-India-India-Indira.html
Table
of Content
Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………2
INDIRA PRIYADARSHI GANDHI………………………………….3
·
Childhood & Early Life…………………………………………………………..……3
·
Marriage & Family Life……………………………………………………………….3
·
Indira as Congress President…………………………………………..………….4
·
First Term as Prime Minister of India………………………………………….4
·
Indo-Pakistan
War in 1971………………………………………………………….5
·
Imposition of Emergency…………………………………………………………….5
·
Fall
from Power and Role as Opposition…………………………………….5
·
Second Term as Prime Minister of India………………………………………6
·
Operation Blue Star…………………………………………………………………….6
·
Assassination………………………………………………………………………………7
MARGARET THATCHER………………………………………………7
·
Early Life……………………………………………………………………………………..7
·
Early Foray into Politics…………………………………………………………..…..8
·
Britain's First Female Premier………………………………………………………9
·
Conservative Leadership………………………………………………………………9
·
Resignation…………………………………………………………………………………10
·
Life After Politics…………………………………………………………………………11
·
Final Years and Legacy…………………………………………………………………11
Assessement…………………………………………………………………………………..12
Reference
list………………………………………………………………………………….13
Table of
Content……………………………………………………………………………..14
[1] https://bengalsamvad.wordpress.com/2015/07/05/some-hidden-facts-about-the-nehru-gandhi-dynasty/
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indira_Gandhi
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