These 14 Indian Women Were "Firsts" In Their Field And You Should Totally Know About Them

We have so much to thank them for.

1. A Lalitha

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Ayyalasomayajula Lalitha was India's first female electrical engineer. She has been an associate member of the Council of the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE) of London and was also India's representative at the 1967 International Conference of Women Engineers and Scientists (ICWES), which was held in Cambridge.

2. M. Fathima Beevi

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Justice M. Fathima Beevi 1st woman judge of a Supreme Court in India as well as Asia (1989) #IndianWomen

05:42 AM - 01 Mar 2016

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Justice M. Fathima Beevi is the first female judge to be a part of India's Supreme Court, and the first Muslim woman to be assigned to any of the higher judiciaries in the country.

3. Dr. Gagandeep Kang

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Dr Gagandeep Kang was the first female Indian scientist to get elected a fellow of The Royal Society. She is a virologist and a professor at the prestigious Christian Medical College in Vellore, and her research focuses on gastrointestinal infections in children.

4. Anna Chandy

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Anna Chandy was the first ever woman to serve as the Judge of a High Court in India. Moreover, she was also the first female judge of the British Empire. You can read more about her in Aatmakatha, her autobiography.

5. Homai Vyarawalla

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Also known as "Dalda 13", Homai Vyaravalla was India's first female photojournalist. She was one of the first women to work for The Illustrated Weekly of India, way back in the 1930s. Owing to her remarkable body of work, Homai has been a Padma Vibhushan recipient.

6. Dr. Tessy Thomas

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An aerospace scientist, Dr. Tessy Thomas is the first ever female scientist to lead a missile project in India. For this reason, she is often known as the "Missile Woman of India".

7. Savitribai Phule

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A pioneer of the feminist movement in India, Savitribai Phule became the country's first female teacher when she set up a school for girls in Pune, in 1848. She also helmed the women's unit of the Satyashodhak Samaj, which fought for the rights of oppressed castes and was "Modern India’s first organised challenge to Brahmanism".

8. Sarla Thakral

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At the mere age of 21, Sarla Thakral became the first Indian woman to fly an aircraft when she flew a Gypsy Moth aircraft in 1936, upon earning her pilot's license.

9. Mangala Mani

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Mangala Mani is the first woman scientist from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to spend more than a year (403 days to be precise) in the continent of Antarctica. In 2016, she was part of the expedition team that went to Bharati, India’s Antarctic research station.

10. Cornelia Sorabji

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Cornelia Sorabji was India's first female advocate, apart from being the first woman to graduate from Bombay University, AND the first woman to study law at the prestigious Oxford University.

11. Durgabai Kamat

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Durgabai Kamat was Indian cinema's first actress and worked in Marathi films. She was a part of Mohini Bhasmasur, the first Indian film to have a female actor, which was directed by Dadasaheb Phalke.

12. Fatma Begum

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India's first female director, Fatma Begum directed her first film, Bulbul-e-Paristan, as far back as 1926, and even launched her own production house which was called Fatma Films.

13. Anandi Gopal Joshi and Kadambini Ganguly

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Kadambini Ganguly and Anandi Gopal Joshi (seen above) were the first female physicians from India. In fact, Kadambini, having been trained in Western Medicine, was the first South Asian to do so. Anandi, on the other hand, was first Indian woman to graduate with a degree in Medicine from the United States.

14. Arati Saha

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Long-distance swimmer Arati Saha was the first Asian woman to swim across the English Channel, way back in 1959. She was also the first Indian sportswoman to receive the Padma Shri.