Capturing the essence of success through the life stories of empowered Indian women

Pages:28-33
Suruchi Bhatia (Department of Psychology, SP Mukherjee College Delhi University, Delhi)
Gopa Bhardwaj (Department of Psychology Delhi University, Delhi)

This is a concise effort to depict gender socialization of women folk. This work is an unbiased understanding of underlying characteristics of empowerment, scientifically gathered and without any feminist nuances. Social status of women has had its crests and falls all along Indian history. The focus of this study is on the analysis of the environment, socialization, and decision making processes of seven iconic personalities in the Indian national scenario. These individuals have been selected on the basis of empowering behavior exhibited by them. They are: Kiran Bedi , Bachendri Pal,Indira Gandi , Ela R. Bhatt,Sonal Mansingh, Sai Paranjpye, and Kalpana Lajmi.Although they all came from different socio-economic backgrounds they had a striking similarity in forming their ideologies as per their aspirations and asserting their independent nature irrespective of varied circumstance s Their focus was clear and line of action concrete. The success they acquired can partially be attributed to their internal locus of contrpl. With their power of communication , personal involvement , problem solving particularity at work, systematic working, transparency, personal accountability, constant internal audit, social audit of performance and review, they were able to cross the hurdles oflife and reach their goals. It is found here that family support is required only until a certain stage of development after which the individual needs to be self reliant. However a support from organizational set up can also act as a facilitator. Not only were their families supportive, but also their irrepressible spirit turned all stumbling blocks into stepping stones. They had aspirations and developed mastery by their work experience and competence .They were daring and were able to establish their own norms.