22 Badass Indian Women You Should Totally Know About This International Women's Day

So many amazing women to look up to!

1. Dr. Gagandeep Kang

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What is perhaps one of the biggest achievements in the scientific world, 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. Her research focuses on gastrointestinal infections in children.

2. 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.

3. Kamal Ranadive (1917—2001)

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A winner of the Padma Bhushan for Medicine in 1982, Kamal Ranadive was a visionary in the field of cancer research — she was one of the first people to identify the links between cancer susceptibility and viruses. Her report on the correlation between breast cancer and heredity has greatly shaped the understanding of the disease. She is also responsible for the establishment of the country's first tissue culture research lab at the Indian Cancer Research Centre.

4. 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.

5. Dr. Tessy Thomas

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An aerospace scientist, Dr. Tessy Thomas is the first ever woman scientist to lead a missile project in India. For this reason, she is often known as the "Missile Woman of India". She was formerly the project director for the Agni-IV Missile and has been a recipient of the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award for Excellence in Public Administration Academics and Management.

6. 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

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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.

7. Asima Chatterjee (1917—2006)

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An organic chemist who was noted for developing important anti-epileptic and anti-malarial drugs, Asima Chatterjee was the first woman to receive a Doctorate of Science degree from an Indian university — the Rajabazar Science College, Calcutta University. Her research on vinca alkaloids, which comes from the Madagascar periwinkle plant, has been crucial for chemotherapy.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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".

11. Dr. Ritu Karidhal

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Also known as the "Rocket Woman of India", Dr. Ritu Karidhal is an aerospace engineer at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). She played a vital role in the development of Mangalyaan, India's Mars Orbiter Mission. Moreover, she was the Mission Director for Chandryaan 2, the country's second exploration mission to the moon.

12. 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.

13. Janaki Ammal (1897—1984)

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Janaki Ammal was India's first woman botanist and a true legend who is responsible for the sweetness in the sugarcane varieties available in the country. Despite consistently facing gender and caste discrimination, she made multiple significant contributions to her field such as studying the chromosomes of several species of flowering plants owing to which, a cross-breed variety of the magnolia bloom that she helped create, was named the "Magnolia Kobus Janaki Ammal" at the Royal Horticulture Society in the UK. She was a recipient of the Padma Shri in 1977.

14. 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.

15. Aditi Sen De

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Physicist Aditi Sen De, who is also a professor at the Harish-Chandra Research Institute in Allahabad, was the first woman to receive the coveted Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, for her work in physical sciences, by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. Her contribution to the exacting field of quantum computation — particularly quantum entanglement — is truly path-breaking.

16. 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.

17. Chandrima Shaha

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Chandrima Saha is not only one of India’s best #Biologists, she is also the first ever female President of #INSA. a step that is an inspiration for aspiring female #scientists all over the world.

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A biologist by profession, Chandrima Shaha happens to be the first ever female president of the Indian National Science Academy (INSA). She was also the former director of the National Institute of Immunology. With cell biology (cell death in particular) as her specialisation, she has substantially researched and penned several papers about Kala-azar, or Black Fever, a tropical disease that is caused by the Leishmania parasite.

18. 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.

19. 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. She has been profiled in the "100 Women Challenge" — the BBC's series on women in science.

20. Swati Mohan

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An Indian-American aerospace engineer, Swati was a part of the team that led the development and landing system of NASA's Perseverance Rover in 2020. She was the first person to confirm that the rover had successfully touched down on the surface of Mars. She holds a Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

21. Rukhmabai Bhikaji (1864—1955)

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One of the first practising female doctors in India, Rukhmabai Bhikaji's story is an absolutely awe-inspiring one. She was married off at the age of 11 to a 19-year-old man named Dadaji Bhikaji and even as a child bride, she had the guts to contest his claims to conjugal rights. This later led to the enactment of the Age of Consent Act. Rukhmabai then went on to study medicine, receiving her MD from the London School of Medicine for Women.

22. Bibha Chowdhuri (1913—1991)

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Did you know that an Indian woman has a star named after her? Well, Bibha Chowdhuri, a physicist from Kolkata, who was the first Indian woman to conduct ground-breaking research on cosmic rays and particle physics — particularly extensive air showers — was honoured by the International Astronomical Union when they renamed the star "HD 86081", "Bibha". She was also the first female scientist at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research.