Women Gain Power in South Asia

In some newly emerging countries, women became heads of state. Often, they replaced their fathers or husbands. In India and Pakistan, women won the right to vote in 1947.

Sri Lanka The world’s first female prime minister was Sirimavo Bandaranaike. She won that position in 1960 in Ceylon (later Sri Lanka). Her husband was assassinated in office in 1959, and Bandaranaike ran for office to fill his seat. She continued her husband’s socialist economic policies. But in 1965, with a sagging economy, she was voted out of office. Five years later, she returned to power and instituted much more radical policies, including land reforms, restrictions on free enterprise, and a new constitution that changed the country’s name to Sri Lanka. While some of her reforms succeeded, the economy stalled again, and in 1977, she was again voted out of office.

Bandaranaike remained active in Sri Lankan politics. Her children became leaders as well. When her daughter Chandrika became the country’s first female president in 1994, she appointed her mother again to the role of prime minister.

India In 1966, two years after the death of India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, his only child, Indira Gandhi, became India’s leader. (She was not related to Mohandas Gandhi.) She was underestimated at first but proved to be effective, distancing herself in some ways from her father’s old- guard advisors and making political and economic moves to strengthen India’s economy. War with Pakistan took a toll on the economy, though India won the conflict with the help of military support from the Soviet Union.

Indira Gandhi became a revered leader in India, though further economic strife would undermine her popularity in the ensuing years. High inflation and growing poverty threatened her rule. She declared a national emergency in 1975 and jailed many opposition leaders. Her 20-point economic program proved successful, alleviating inflation, reforming corrupt laws, and increasing national production. But some of her policies were unpopular with the people of India despite the economic gains. In 1977, Gandhi lost in the elections. She returned to power as prime minister in 1980 but was assassinated in 1984.

Pakistan Pakistan elected Benazir Bhutto prime minister in 1988. Her father had also served as prime minister. She was the first elected female leader of a majority Muslim country. Bhutto struggled to improve Pakistan’s economy and reduce its poverty. Corruption charges dogged her and her husband. Bhutto won election to two nonconsecutive terms and then went into exile from 1999 until 2007. Shortly after she returned to Pakistan, an assassin killed her.