To the Iron Will...

RIP Margaret Thatcher!

For the generation of us born in 70s, the names of Margaret Thatcher along with Indira Gandhi and Sirimavo Bandaranaike was synonymous not only for the women politicians, but also for the women who made their mark as the first women Prime Ministers of their countries.

In that era where the women liberation was still gaining ground, these strong women shattered the glass ceiling in the hitherto male dominated profession. For the common women though, professional life was still a struggle, except in some old fashioned professions like teaching; the society by and large was still safe and tolerable for women to live and let live.

Three and half decades later, the glass ceiling has been broken many a times. The role models are many a plenty, in almost all professions. And the changes are visible around us, largely in the intolerable behaviour of still a male dominated society. The roads are unsafe and so are homes. Women liberation has happened, but at the cost of the lives of those very women.

So while the world remembers the Iron Lady and her legacy, will it be also be relevant to remind certain sections of society that "Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't."

In salutation and in hope that the Iron Will in us never rusts,
Pooja
April 8, 2013