Women’s Day in India

It has been interesting to be in India on International Women’s Day.
There certainly seems to be more awareness and serious attention
paid to the event than I have ever seen in the US. The Economic
Times daily paper was particularly committed to honoring women:
it invited three women CEOs to be its guest
editors for the day and devoted about half of its page space to
relevant articles. Below is what I found in just the first section.
The second section of The Economic Times was just as rich.
The Times of India and Bangalore Times also devoted a
large amount of space to articles by and about women (most were
serious but as usual there was a generous mix of sexy photos, fashion
tips, and movie star gossip).

Today, too, Air Deccan gave women priority boarding on its
flights to honor International Women’s Day. I even had one of the
women Engineers here at Sun shake my hand and say “Happy International
Women’s Day!”. That has never happened before. I am saving these
three papers to take home to my daughter. They are downright encouraging!

• page one
  • “Women at Work – an ET special”
  • “ET Guest Editors Have the First Laugh – How news & views
    tangoed”

  • “Her Economic March – 16.6% of Urban Women in Employment;
    Highest Number in 25 Yrs”
• page two – The Political Theatre
  • “Anti-women provisions likely to go – Ninth Schedule Changes
    Were Endorsed by Indira Ghandi When She Was Chairperson of NAC”

  • “Women at Work – As a writer, I had to work for peace”
    by Indira Goswami (Jnanpeeth Award Winner)
• page three – The Political Theatre
  • “Working women add to nation’s GDP growth”
  • “Serious Business, After All”
• page four – Business of Brands
  • “What is a Great Brand?” Editor’s Line by
    Vinita Bali, MG Brittania

  • “Women at Work – The consumer isn’t stupid, she’s the boss”
    by Pranesh Nusra, President & COO, Lowe Lintas India

  • “A New dimension to marketing products – Traditional View that
    the Indian Woman is Family-Oriented is Not Always Valid, Especially
    in Urban India, says Kala Vijayaraghavan”
• page five – Emerging Business & IT
  • “Through the Glass Ceiling” Editor’s Line by Kiran Muzumdar-Shaw,
    CMD, Biocon

  • “Women at Work – Boardroom pin-up girls making waves” by
    Padma Ravichander, MD Perot Systems
• page six – Career & Business Life
  • “Invest in intuitive power of women” by Sangita Reddy, MD, Apollo
    Health Street

  • “When Sita finally trumped Rama” by Kiran Bedi, IPS Officer
  • “Women at Work – Exceptional women make it to the top” by
    Ketaki Gupta, Partner Korn Ferry International

  • “No more gender discrimination” by Chanda Kochhar, DMD ICICI Bank
  • “Beating male bastion, women fashion success stories – At
    Intimate Fashions Employement Means Self-Reliance and Empowerment
    for Women Hailing from Rural India”

  • “More women tune into core R&D IT activity”
  • “Women at Work – Music Strikes a Chord with IIM-B Grad”
• page eight – International
  • “Women at Work – Indian women’s train hits ideological
    tunnel”
• page nine – Women at Work
  • “India Inc’s Angels – Twin Wonders – Sharifa, India’s first woman
    qazi from
    Midnapore, and Shabnam Begum, organizer of Tamil Nadu’s first
    women’s Jamaat, have achieved the impossible. Championing
    the rights of women who live on the fringes, they have stormed religious
    bastions, overturned centuries of purdah and have carved out a
    place for themselves as change-makers in their communities”

  • “Family Strength” by Jayashree Venkatraman, Director TAFE
    
  • “Princess and the P: Rajasthan’s first woman CM takes a bow –
    woman, politician, mother… Vasundhara Raje Dons her roles with grace”

  • “Breaking their Shells” by Rohini Nilekani, Chief Akshara Foundation
  • “I was the only woman in law class – Retired Supreme Court Judge
    Ruma Pal speaks about her illustrious legal career”

  • “It’s one long jump indeed” by Anju Boby George, Athlete
• page ten – Women at Work
  • “Goddess of small things & driving force of Avvai”
  • “Mothering the homeless”
  • “Does gender matter?” by Ingrid Srinath, CEO Cry
  • “The face of a woman”
  • “Portals of science open for women” by Geeta Varadan, Project
    Director ISRO

  • “Paper dreams”
  • “It’s full marks for education”
• page eleven – Women at Work
  • “Crouching tigress in men’s own bastion”
  • “No gender bias in corporates” by Ekta Kapoor, CD, Balaji Telefilms
  • “I was at the right place at the right time”
  • “Star Troika who blazed the ’06 trail – Aruna Jayanthi,
    Vishakha Mulye and Roopa Purushothanam are three forces that emerged
    last year”

  • “Empowerment or exclusion – what lies ahead?” by Poojita Chowdhury,
    Docu Film Maker
• page twelve – Freedom from Economics
  • “First woman in space dreams of flying to Mars”