Submitted by:

SHIVANK SINGHAL 18103262

Submitted to :
Akarsh arora
 ​CONTENTS Page
Number
a. Introduction of women leadership in India
(in general)
3.

b. Introduction of woman leader selected.

5.
c. Brief biography of woman leader i.e. birth,
childhood, education and other important
details. 6.
d. Her traits according to The Big Five
Personality Traits Model.
8.

e. Her Strength
9.

f. Her contribution
10.

g. Any other important point

11.

h. Conclusion
11.

i. References
12.
Leading​means having a vision and sharing it with others.

A ​leader is a person who influences and encourages a group of people to work towards the
realization of goals. The hallmark of leadership is the capacity to influence others towards
accomplishing goals and towards betterment.

Leadership is not gender-specific ​. It is a set of leadership qualities which is either inherent

or cultivated in a person or persons who develop themselves into great leaders with mass
following. ​A leader knows how to motivate better than anyone else.

Leaders can either be men or women.

WOMEN AS LEADERS

Women are constantly evolving and reaching new milestones across a wide spectrum of
human activities in modern times. Women are gradually making their leadership presence felt
in entrepreneurship, administration, education, engineering, health, etc. at regional, national,
and global levels. Women have attained remarkable success in what was once considered the
“male domain”, of the working world.

In India, research and surveys reveal that men out-number women in terms of attaining top
managerial positions. Review of secondary sources shows that data on Indian female
managers is almost non-existent. The very lack of statistical data signifies the lack of
attention paid to the persistent issue of women in leadership positions in the Indian context.
But still women have proved to be remarkable leaders as evidence shows.
THE EVIDENCE

The role played by women in India's independence movement

India’s struggle for freedom is one such instance in history where women had stepped out of
their regular roles as home-makers, mothers and wives to shoulder the responsibility of
sculpting the concept of a new nation amidst the conflict between the people and the colonial
state. While they were at it, they stood shoulder to shoulder with their men-folk to rally the
masses to the cause, face bullets, picket shops, and participate in propaganda making. They
embodied self-sufficiency as Gandhi had first visualised through the skill of spinning using a
“charkha” (spinning machine for household spinning of cloth).

Present scenario

Women as leaders and decision-makers at all levels are critical to advancing gender justice
and gender equality—and to furthering economic, social, and political progress for all. When
women are meaningfully represented and engaged in leadership bodies—such as legislatures,
courts, executive boards, community councils—laws, rulings, and decisions are more likely
to be inclusive, representative, and take diverse views into account.

Women’s leadership within households, including decision-making over land and household
income, improves access to education and healthcare for their families. Countries with a
greater proportion of women as top decision-makers in legislatures have lower levels of
income inequality. Peace agreements are 35% more likely to last at least 15 years if women
leaders are engaged in its creation and execution.

When women hold more executive leadership positions, their companies are more profitable:
companies in the top-quartile for gender diversity on executive teams are 21% more likely to
outperform the national average.
When we talk of women leadership in India, Indira Gandhi can be seen as a perfect role
model. She was the first and, to date, only female prime minister of India. She was India's
third prime minister, serving from 1966 until 1984. She was the lone daughter of Jawaharlal
Nehru, India's first prime minister, Indira Gandhi ascended to the position after his death in
the mid-1960s. Gandhi survived party in-fighting, emerging as a popular leader thanks in part
to efforts to revitalize the farming industry. Ousted from power in 1977, Gandhi was
reelected prime minister in 1980, and served in the role until her assassination in 1984.

She was a highly intelligent young woman, she attended her school in India, Switzerland and
England, including Somerville College, Oxford. She was highly admired by people around
her, due to her bold nature and her policies like nationalization of banks in 1969. O ​ne tactic
of India's nationalist movement was to reject foreign — particularly British products. At a
young age, Indira witnessed a bonfire of foreign goods. Later, the 5-year-old chose to burn
her own beloved doll because the toy had been made in England.

She garnered widespread public support for agricultural improvements that led to India’s
self-sufficiency in food grain production as well as for her success in the Pakistan war, which
resulted in the creation of Bangladesh in 1971. After serving three terms, Gandhi was voted
out of office for her increasingly authoritarian policies, including a 21-month state of
emergency in which Indians’ constitutional rights were restricted. Following a deadly
confrontation at the Sikh’s holiest temple in Punjab four years later, Gandhi was assassinated
by two of her bodyguards on October 31, 1984.
Indira Gandhi ​in full ​Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi was born on November 19, 1917, in
Allahabad, India. ​Indian politician who was the ​first female prime minister of India ​,
serving for three consecutive terms (1966–77) and a fourth term from 1980 until she was
assassinated in 1984. ​The lone child of ​Jawaharlal Nehru , India’s first prime minister, she
ascended to the position after his death in the mid-1960s. Gandhi survived party in-fighting,
emerging as a popular leader thanks in part to efforts to revitalize the farming industry.

Early Life

A stubborn and highly intelligent young woman, she attended schools in India, Switzerland
and England, including Somerville College, Oxford.

With her father among the leaders of the Indian independence movement, Gandhi weathered
his absences when he was imprisoned. Additionally, she endured the loss of her mother to
tuberculosis in 1936. She found comfort with a family friend, Feroze Gandhi, but their
relationship was a controversial one due to his Parsi heritage. Eventually the couple earned
Nehru's approval, and they married in 1942.

After Nehru was named India's first prime minister in 1947, Gandhi became something of her
father's hostess, learning to navigate complex relationships of diplomacy with some of the
great leaders of the world.

Political Rise

Gandhi joined the Congress Party's working committee in 1955, and four years later she was
elected the party's president. Following the death of her father in 1964, she was appointed to
Rajya Sabha, the upper level of Indian parliament, and was named minister of information
and broadcasting. When her father’s successor, Lal Bahadur Shastri, died abruptly in 1966,
she ascended to the post of prime minister.

Seemingly on shaky ground following the Congress Party's narrow win in the 1967 election,
Gandhi surprised her father’s old colleagues with her resilience. In 1969, after she acted
unilaterally to nationalize the country's banks, Congress Party elders sought to oust her from
her role. Instead, Gandhi rallied a new faction of the party with her populist stance, and
cemented her hold on power with a decisive parliamentary victory in 1971.

Roles played by her:

● Environmentalist:
Mrs. Gandhi known as the ‘Iron Lady of India’ had a softer side to her personality that
yearned for the mountains and proximity to nature. ​Mrs. Gandhi was the only head of

government, other than the host prime minister, to speak at the first-ever United Nations
(UN) Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm in June 1972.

● Supported women:
Gandhi wrote in one of her letter to her friend: "I am in no sense a feminist, but I believein
women being able to do everything...Given the opportunity to develop, capable Indian
women have come to the top at once.

War and Domestic Successes

That year, India was drawn into a bloody conflict between East and West Pakistan, with some
10 million Pakistanis seeking refuge in India. Following the surrender of Pakistani forces in
December, Gandhi invited Pakistani President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to the city of Simla for a
summit. The two leaders signed the Simla Agreement, agreeing to resolve territorial disputes
in a peaceful fashion and paving the way for recognition of the independent nation of
Bangladesh.
During this time, India was achieving tangible success through advancements of the Green
Revolution. Addressing the chronic food shortages had that mainly affected the poor Sikh
farmers of the Punjab region, Gandhi spurred growth through the introduction of high-yield
seeds and irrigation, eventually producing a surplus of grains. Additionally, the prime
minister led her country into the nuclear age with the detonation of an underground device in
1974.

Assassination

During the early 1980s, Gandhi faced increasing pressure from secessionist factions,
particularly from Sikhs in Punjab. In 1984, she ordered the Indian army to confront Sikh
separatists at their sacred Golden Temple in Amritsar, resulting in several hundred reported
casualties, with others estimating the human toll to be significantly higher.

On October 31, 1984, Gandhi was shot and killed by two of her bodyguards, both Sikhs,
in retribution for the attack at the Golden Temple. She was immediately succeeded by son
Rajiv, who was left to quell deadly anti-Sikh riots, and her body was cremated three days
later in a Hindu ritual.

Indira Gandhi emerges as a multifaceted individual with four of her personality scales—the
Ambitious​, the ​Reticent​, the ​Contentious​, and the Dominating ​—approaching the level of
mildly dysfunctional. A psychodynamic explanation for these patterns was then offered. This
study also developed an instrument for evaluating leadership styles in a cabinet system of
government and postulated the theoretical links between personality patterns and leadership
style profiles. Gandhi's leadership style was then examined and links between personality
profile and leadership style explored: In eight of the 10 leadership categories, Indira Gandhi's
leadership behaviour matched our expectations for the Ambitious, Dominant, and
Contentious personality profiles but not the reticent one.
She was an exceptional leader and administrator, with a vision, determination and personality
to impress, induce and implement. She was an iron lady, who took bold and historic decisions
of far -flung consequences, on several occasions and got them implemented despite tough
oppositions. Some of her programs, policies, actions, implementations may not be above
questions but she was, unquestionably, one of the greatest leaders, and far better than many of
her confused, conservative contemporaries, successors or the latter brand of some caste its,
communalists, scamsters, hypocrite, incompetent leaders.

1. ​Her ​independent decision-making quality ​set her apart from her contemporaries in a
major way. She was known for centralization of power during her regime and led India
during its war with Pakistan that led to the liberation of Bangladesh. She had set her own
rules regarding her approach towards Indian politics and the world in general. She chose
to follow her father’s non-alignment policy, trying to avoid succumbing to either the
American or Soviet pressures on certain specific issues.
2. She was ​outspoken​at a time when women were still struggling to even move freely out
of their houses. At that time, she came across as a role model and showed that women
could — and must — raise their voices and be heard.
3. Strong-willed​, she addressed the challenges of a developing country. “Her decisions and
timings were applauded and hailed as perfect. As Henry Kissinger admits in his memoirs,
Indira Gandhi outclassed and outmanoeuvred Nixon and Kissinger,” as reported by the
Mainstream Weekly. Kissinger and then-US President Nixon did, however, famously call
her ​“that bitch”.
4. Undoubtedly​a strong leader, ​the vigour and the zeal with which Indira Gandhi
performed during her term as Prime Minister of India have been widely praised.
Indira Gandhi, our former prime minister was one of the most powerful leaders of India. An
Indian prime minister who changed the history and even the geography of the world by
creating a new nation Bangladesh even with the limited resources and intelligence India
could provide.

As a national leader with her bold and fearless decisions, she showed the world that India is
regaining its powers back and should not be considered as weak at any cost. Her ideas for
development like the ​green revolution and the ​white revolution in the form of setting up of
AMUL is the best step taken to make the nation independent on the food factor and to
minimize the import of food. She fought with the basic problems faced by her citizens at that
time as the era nation. Her development in the country is amazing.

The 1971 Indo-Pak war by striking back on Pakistan even after the interference of the UNO
in the matter showed the other world powers that India will not fear anyone when it’s about
the security of the nation and her citizens.

Her decisions were welcomed by the people hence turning her to be a mass accepted leader.
Though at some points she has also faced criticism but when her overall governance is
considered, she proved to be one of the best leaders of India.
A brief extract from the last speech delivered by Mrs. Indira Gandhi at Bhubaneswar
prior to her assassination.

“I am here today; I may not be here tomorrow. But the responsibility to look after national
interest is on the shoulder of every citizen of India. I have often mentioned this earlier.
Nobody knows how many attempts have been made to shoot me, lathis have been used to
beat me. In Bhubaneswar itself, a brickbat hit me. They have attacked me in every possible
manner. I do not care whether I live or die. I have lived a long life and I am proud that I
spend the whole of my life in the service of my people. I am only proud of this and nothing
else. I shall continue to serve until my last breath and when I die, I can say, that ​every drop
of my blood will invigorate India and strengthen it ​.”

In light of this evidence, one can conclude that Indira Gandhi was selfless and persistent. She
did many things for her country and the citizens of her country and always thought of others
before herself. If it wasn't for Indira Gandhi, women could still be treated unfairly and many
people would have died because of the terrorist attacks that Indira Gandhi "sacrificed" her life
for. She changed many things for the good of people.

Indira had not only proved herself but also that a woman can be a leader. She had a tough
time in her early life and politics but rising above all makes her an inspiration for others. Her
dominance as a political figure was so profound that the opposition leader Atal Bihari
Vajpayee hailed her as Goddess Durga.
References
✔ https://myhero.com/I_Gandhi3_riverwatch_US_2015_ul
✔ http://www.myeducorner.com/indira-gandhi-essay-biography-short-note-parag
raph-article/
✔ https://www.shethepeople.tv/news/remembering-indira-gandhi-the-leadership-
and-the-pitfalls

Thank You.