SHEROSE

Indian Women’s history is full of inspiring stories who have worked hard for the rights of all Indian Women. We can learn a lot from them and their stories.

Here’s a list of women who achieved something for the first time in their respective fields. 

“The world needs strong women. Women who will lift and build others, who will love and be loved, women who live bravely, both tender and fierce, women of indomitable will.” – Amy Tenney

Savitribai Phule: First female Teacher of India. 

Savitribai Phule was an educationalist and a poet. She is regarded as the first female teacher of India. Along with her husband, Jyotirao Phule, she played an important and vital role in improving women’s rights in India and established the first Indian Girl’s School. Her two books of poetry ‘Kavya Phule’ and ‘Bavan Kashi Subodh Ratnakar’ continue to inspire us today with their questions on caste and gender.

Indira Gandhi: First Female Prime Minister of India (1966)

Indira Gandhi was the first and to date, only female Prime Minister of India serving for three consecutive terms 1966-77 and a fourth term from 1980 until she was assassinated in 1984 making her the 2nd longest-serving Indian Prime Minister after her father. Her life involved politics from a young age. She had great leadership skills, courage, and decisive nature. She was known for her administrative skills and fearless governance.

Kiran Bedi: First Female IPS officer (1972)

She is the first female IPS officer in 1972. Also, later in 2003, she became the first woman who was appointed as the United Nations Civil Police adviser. Her expertise includes more than 35 years of creative and reformative policing and prison management. She worked in the areas of crime prevention, drug abuse, police and prison reforms, and Domestic Violence.

M. Fathima Beevi: First Female Supreme court justice. (1989)

She is the former judge of the Supreme Court of India. Appointed to the apex Court in 1989, she became the first female judge to be a part of the Supreme court of India. She served as a member of the National Human Rights Commission and later as the Governor of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Through her incredible journey and her ability to tackle gender imbalance in the legal field, she opened the doors for women to pursue a career in a male-dominated judiciary.

Priya Jhingan: First Female cadet to join the Army 

Priya Jhingan is an Indian Army Officer  & Lady Cadet No 1 from the first batch of 25 lady officers who were commissioned in the Indian Army.  She is a law graduate and the daughter of a police officer. She wrote a letter to the chief of Army staff, expressing her wish to join the defense and from thereon started her journey. She and her team have gone through the same tough physical training as the male cadets which made them stronger and dedicated to the service of the nation.

Kalpana Chawla: The First Female to go to Space

Kalpana Chawla, the first woman of Indian origin to go to space.  She was born in Karnal, Haryana. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering from Punjab Engineering college in India in 1982. Her first space mission began on November 19, 1997. She was part of the six-astronaut crew that flew the space shuttle Columbia flight STS-87.

Pratibha Patil: First Female President of India (2007)

Pratibha Patil is an Indian politician who served as the 12th President of India from 2007 to 2012. She became the first woman President of India and held office from July 2007 to July 2012.

Saina Nehwal: First Indian Female to win an Olympic Medal in Badminton (2012)

She is the first Indian to win the World Junior Badminton Championships and was also the first Indian to win a Super Series tournament, by clinching the Indonesia Open on 21 June 2009. She won the bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics and became the first Indian to win a medal in the sport at the mega event. She has taken Badminton to greater heights and her success has inspired many girls to consider taking up the sport professionally.

Mary Kom: First Female Boxer to win a Gold medal in Asian Games (2014)

Mary Kom is the only female to become World Amateur Boxing Champion for a record six times, the only female boxer to have won a medal in each one of the first seven world championships. She was the only Indian Woman boxer who qualified for the 2012 Olympics and became the first woman boxer to win a Gold medal in Asian Games 2014 and at the commonwealth games 2018. She being a mother of three children runs a Mary Kom Regional Boxing Foundation at Manipur to train youngsters.

Nirmala Sitharaman: First Female Full-time Finance Minister of India (2019)

Nirmala Sitharaman is an Indian economist and politician serving as the current Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs of India. She is the first female to hold the portfolio full time. Earlier, former prime minister Indira Gandhi had held finance as an additional portfolio for a short period when she was the Prime Minister of India. Besides being the second woman finance minister, Sitharaman is also the second female defense minister after Indira Gandhi. Recently she has given India’s First Paperless (Digital) Budget.

She Believed  She Could, So She did!

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