WOMEN WHO CHANGED THE COURSE OF INDIAN HISTORY

1843 saw the beginning of the westward movement of Americans. The role of women has not
changed in recent years. On the trail, women had the responsibilities of childbearing and childrearing.
These women lived out of wagons for half a year or longer, where they cooked and cleaned and raised
the children as best they could. This decision to uproot and make the journey to the west caused a great
deal of domestic tensions. " When women had to deviate from their distinct responsibilities, such as
"keeping house," and help the men with their responsibilities, they were reluctant rather than seizing
the chance to show that they could do a man's job. Women did not complain that the work was difficult,
but more that it was "unladylike." White women were not the only women that suffered along these
journeys. Mexican women that were living in the south were pushed aside as American women moved
their way into their lands. These self-identified "respectable" white women shunned prostitutes and
female adventurers. Indian women were degraded to the status of domestic servants and at the time of
the outbreak of the civil war, Mexican women were beginning to be of the same status.
The average period between births for white women specifically in 1850 was twenty-nine months, it
is a reasonable assumption that many, possibly most, women were caring for infants while living on
the wagons.
Once the journey was at an end and the white Americans begin their lives in the West, the Native
Women and Mexican citizens were not fairing so well. They were pushed aside in the beginning were
violently pushed to the side, were now experiencing conquest and displacement. This expansion set
women against each other on the basis of race, culture and ethnicity. Hunger and diseases that were
brought by the emigrating white Americans were spreading through the Plains Indian tribes. The Indian
women were forced to beg for food and money.
There was a great reconstruction period from 1865 until the 1900. During this time there came a great
change in women's lives. In the North, women were challenging the government and looking for equal
rights for women. Black women in the South were confronting the challenges and dangers of their
newfound freedom. After the defeat of the Confederacy in the Civil War, slaves were beginning to
become educated and have families of their own. However, there were many racial conflicts in the
aftermath of slavery. Middle class and upper class women created today what is called the "Women's
Era" as they pursued new opportunities in education, civic organization and public authority. As the
industrial society grew, more women wage earners entered the system and brought with them their
determination to join in the efforts to bring democracy to American class relations.
Immigration was a big change that came in the nineteenth century as well. Immigrant mothers stayed at
home while teenage daughters became their family's secondary wage earners. Young daughters tried to
move toward modern society while their mother's tried to keep them in the Old-World traditions. These
women also often became domestic servants for white women and they had no choice but to do this
degrading work because of poverty.

In 1914, there was a great surfacing of feminism. As the votes-for-women campaign gained momentum,
the idea of modernizing womanhood and feminism began to grow. The agenda of these feminists, who
were suffragists-but not all suffragists, were feminists- was to embrace female individuality and birth
control. This feminism was more of a cultural development rather than a movement. Rheta Childe Dorr
wrote, "Feminism was something with dynamite in it. It is the state of mind of women who realize that
their whole position in the social order is antiquated . . . made of old materials, worn out laws, customs,
conventions, fetishes, traditions and taboos." This feminism brought along with it the birth control
movement. . Harriot Stanton Blach said in her speech in 1891 that, "Motherhood is sacred-that is,
voluntary motherhood; but the woman who bears unwelcome children is outraging every duty she owes
the race . . . [Women] should refuse to prostitute their creative powers, and so jeopardize the progress
of the human race." (pg.349). Margaret Sanger, a daughter of Irish immigrants, opened the first
American birth control clinic. Days after it opened she was arrested for promoting birth control. When
she was released, she continued to dedicate herself to the cause. Contraception became more
acceptable and more widely advertised in the 1920s. But in the prewar years, birth control was a radical
idea that challenged traditional ideas of women's .
During the Cold War years, another great emphasis was put on domesticity and family life because of
the "red scare," or the scare of communists. During this time the idea of "feminine mystique" was
brought about. One woman, Betty Friedan, captured this idea. She attacked mass media for encouraging
women to gain a sense of personal creativity through the use of cake mixes and floor waxes. She
criticized popular magazines for psychologists for prescribing tranquilizers for "neurotic" women instead
of examining the social bases of their unhappiness. In her book, The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan
wrote, ". . .the problem that has no name stirring in the minds of so many American women today is not
a matter of loss of femininity or too much education, or the demands of domesticity. . . It was in these
women that I first began to notice the tell-tale signs of the problem that has no name; their voices were
full and flat, or nervous and jittery; they were listless and bored, or frantically "busy" around the house
or community. They talked about "fulfillment" in the wife-and-mother terms of the mystique, but they
were desperately eager to talk about this other "problem" with which they seemed to be familiar with."
The ideology of feminine mystique is best understood as a prescription for female behavior indicted by
those Americans eager to reinforce strict gender roles, and therefore find a means of social order.

As you can see, the idea of control over a woman's body and its reproductive rights has greatly changed
over since the 1840s. Women used to believe that their only responsibility was childbearing, childrearing
and "keeping house." Also, that they were subject to their husbands and had no voice. Reforms that
began at the beginning of the century allowed women to have a voice and gain the control they rightly
deserved over their own bodies. If these women were not brave enough to make the steps toward
individualism, we would not be where we women are today.

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Indian history is way to abundant in great stories to describe them all here in this short essay.
That is why I think it would be good idea to focus on some of woman of ancient period and some of the
new period . As they all have together changed changed the Indian history.

1.Usha Mehta Savitribai Phule (25th March 1920 ~ 11th August 2000)
Usha Mehta Savitribai Phule t only a freedom fighter and a follower of Mahatma Ghandi, but also a
creator of the so called Secret Congress Radio during the 1983 Quit India Movement. For her activities,
she was sentenced to confinement in the Yeravda prison in Pune.

2.Rani Lakshmibai (19th November ~ 17th June 1858)A true fighter for freedom and a
symbol of heroism in the contemporary history of Indian. Rani Lakshmibai was a queen of the state of
Jhansi who participated in the first rebellion against British which started in 1857. After the city of Jhansi
had been captured, the queen was moving back with her army a couple of times until she was finally
beaten and slain while fighting with her son Damodar Rao. It's worth to note that even the British

command praised her devotion and heroism.

3.Meerabai:(1498-1565) Indian mystic and poet. Mirabai was born into a privileged Hindu family,
but she forsook the expectations of a princess and spent her time as a mystic and devotee of Krishna.
She helped revitalise the tradition of bhakti (devotional) yoga in India.

4.Mother Terrisa: (1910 1997) Albanian nun/ charity work. Devoting her life to the service of
the poor and dispossessed Mother Teresa became a global icon for selfless service to others. Through
her Missionary of Charities organisation she personally cared for thousands of sick and dying people in
Calcutta. She was awarded the Nobel Peace prize in 1979.

5. Indira Gandhi: (1917 1984) First female prime minister of India. She was in power from
between 1966-77 and 1980-84. Accused of authoritarian tendencies she only narrowly avoided a
military coup by agreeing to hold an election at the end of the emergency period of 1977. She was
assassinated in 1984 by her Sikh bodyguards, in response to her storming of the Golden

6. Irom Chanu Sharmila

Also called the Iron Lady of Manipur, she holds the record for the longest hunger strike. The activist has
been sitting on a strike for over a decade, demanding the repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act
(AFSPA). All of 28 years when she decided to fast, Sharmila was arrested three days after she began her
strike for attempted suicide, and again in 2006 for protesting in Delhi. Even though her condition has
been deteriorating, nothing has deterred the 42-years

7. Amrita Devi
Way back in 1730, when Indian women had little say even in matters at home, this brave woman fought
against the felling of tress by the Maharaja of Jodhpur in Marwar, Rajasthan, by sacrificing her life, along
with those of her three daughters.

8. Sita Sahu
Sprinter Sita Sahu won 2 bronze medals at the 2011 Special Olympics in Athens at the young age of 15.
Unfortunately, due to the ignorance and lack of concern from authorities, the girl now sells gol gappe in
Dhobiya Tanke in Rewa, Madhya Pradesh. She truly deserves a standing ovation from us!

9.Sapper Shanti Tigga

35-year-old Tigga became the first Indian woman, who is a mother of two, to become a jawan in the
Indian Army. Standing at par with her male counterparts, she joined the 969 Railway Engineer Regiment
of Territorial Army in 2011. However, her life ended too soon as she was abducted and later found dead.

10. Arundhati Battacharya

Bhattacharya, an Indian banker, was the first woman to become the chairperson of the State Bank Of
India (SBI). She has also been featured in the Forbes Most Powerful Women list in the 36th slot.

11. Kalpana Chawla

Chawla was the first Indian woman to go to space. She passed away in the infamous Columbia disaster
in 2003 when the space shuttle disintegrated over Texas while re-entering the earth's atmosphere hours
before it was scheduled to conclude its 28th mission. None of the crew members survived.

12. Kunjarani Devi

The bespectacled 46-year-old is perhaps the most celebrated Indian woman in weightlifting. She was
also the first woman to win the Arjuna award in 1990. She also shared the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna
award with Leander Paes in 1996-1997. Even though she faced difficulties when she decided to pursue
the profession, she stood strong and worked tirelessly to achieve success.

13. Indira Nooyi

Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi is the chairperson and CEO of the second largest food and beverage business
in the world, Pepsi Co. Nooyi has been a regular in the world's most powerful women's lists. She was
also named as the third most powerful women in business by Fortune in 2014.