Women Power

The second half of the 20^th century saw the emergence of the women ruling the nations. More than fifty women prime ministers have emerged to date tearing the bastions of power to shape the world. Till the turn of the century the women who lead from front were very few and far between from the times of Nefertiti and Cleopatra of Egypt, Joan of Arc of France, Isabella of Spain, Mary Queen of Scots, Catherine the Great of Russia, and Queen Victoria and Elizabeth of England. In all just about 20 women stooped to conquer the world in the entire human history prior to mid 20^th century.

In the recent times the one’s that caught the imagination of the world for their styles of leadership and aura, the notable ones were Sirimavo Bhandaranaike of Srilanka, Mrs Indira Gandhi of India, Golda Meir of Israel, Margaret Thatcher of UK, Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan, Sheikh Hasina Wajed of Bangaladesh and Angela Merkel - the Chancellor of Germany. Each of them has contributed significantly to the world and has made a difference. A quick scan of their profiles would reveal this.

Sirimavo Bhandaranaike had the unique honor to have lead her country thrice after coming into power after the assassination of her husband Solomon Bhandaranaike (in 1956) who was, the then prime minister. She also had the singular distinction of being handed the mandate to lead her nation in 1994 for the third time by her own daughter Chandrika Kumaratunga who was the president of Srilanka!

Mrs Indira Gandhi was the daughter of the first Prime Minister Pt Jawaharlal Nehru of India and ran the office of Prime Minister for two terms before being pre maturely assassinated in 1984.Mrs Indira Gandhi was the architect of creation of Bangladesh after the 1971 war between India and Pakistan. She was a firm leader and understood the pulse of the country except for the period when emergency was imposed. She had to pay with her own life for having ordered clearance of the Golden Temple which was occupied by the Sikh militants at the height of insurgency in 1984.

Golda Meir was the first woman PM of Israel who was a teacher by profession and an avid politician. She was described as ‘The Iron Lady’ before this term was applied to Mrs Margret Thatcher of England. She demonstrated her leadership to the world when the Black September outfit killed the Olympics squad of Israel at Munich Olympics in 1972, by ordering Mossad (Israeli Intelligence Agency) to ruthlessly pursue and eliminate those responsible for the carnage. Later, Steven Spielberg created the movie ’Munich’ based on this real life incident. After the debacle of Yom Kippur war in 1973, where the military preparedness of Israel was found wanting, she resigned even after having won the elections in 1974.

Mrs Margret Thatcher had the unique distinction of being the longest serving Prime Minister (1979- 1990) of United Kingdom and was dubbed as the ‘Iron Lady’ for dealing with former Soviet Union deftly. She was considered to be the only man in the British parliament for her unique style of having handled the trade unions and the invasion of the ‘Falkland islands’ by Argentina. She mobilized the task force of the Royal Navy to be mobilized thousands of kilometers away in Atlantic Ocean and ordered the sinking of the Argentinean vessel ‘General Belgrano’ by British Nuclear submarine assigned the task. This broke the will of the invading Argentinean forces and the Falklands islands occupation was regained by Great Britain, surging the popularity of Mrs Thatcher to a new high resulting in her reelection in 1983.

Benazir Bhutto was the charismatic daughter of erstwhile Prime Minister of Pakistan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. She too served two non consecutive terms as the Prime Minister of Pakistan becoming the first woman to rule a Muslim dominated nation. Benazir Bhutto was the proponent of the Nuclear Weapons program and renewed the thrust in modernization in this area, despite passing of ‘Pressler Amendment’ by USA in an attempt to freeze the nuclear program. She was also responsible for the development of missiles and space program and the first military satellite was placed in space orbit by assistance from China. Thus, Pakistan too earned the distinction of having its own satellite in space. She was assassinated in a bomb attack in an election rally near Rawalpindi on 27 Dec 2007, bringing her political career to an abrupt end.

Sheikh Hasina is the eldest of five daughters of Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, the founder father of Bangladesh. She is currently the Prime Minister of Bangladesh running a second term since 2008 after having served one term from 1996-2001. One of her major achievement was the ‘Farakka treaty’ with India signed to share the water and a ‘Peace Treaty’ with the mountain rebels. After having served one term, her party was voted out of power for prevailing corruption, and being voted as the most corrupt nation by Transparency International. She returned with a thumping majority in 2008 and holds the reins of power.

Angela Merkel a physical chemist by profession rose to become the Chancellor of Germany and also the first woman to occupy this position in November 2005.She was awarded doctorate for her thesis in Quantam Chemistry and has several papers to her credit. Following the fall of major stock markets in September 2008, she played a pivotal role for bailout package exceeding 30 billion Euros to assist the mortgage company Hypo Real Estate. She has been rated as one of the most powerful woman by Forbe’s magazine for many years in succession.

The emergence of the rising women power in the 21^st century is all too evident. The advances in information technology, rising education levels and aspirations of women have made them compete with men in the areas of erstwhile male dominance. They are successful industrialists, educationists, professionals and are now in military holding responsible positions. Notwithstanding, all these achievements they are the home makers in every part of the world.