Remembering powerful and inspirational women we lost in 2019
From Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison to Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, we remember the women we lost this year.
2019 was a year of achievements and progress for women in various fields. Women broke glass ceilings, marched for human rights, won elections, led demonstrations and protests, called out sexual predators, and embraced new found notions of freedom.
As we welcome the New Year, it’s also important to remember the women we lost. These women were path-breakers and inspired many generations of women.
Here are some powerful and inspirational women who we lost in 2019.
Toni Morrison
Nobel laureate Toni Morrison was one of the most influential American authors. Born on February 18, 1931, as Chloe Wofford, she went on to become the author of seminal literature about black experience. She was the first black woman to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. Morrison died onAugust 6, aged 88.
Morrison worked as an editor at Random House Publishing before starting out as a writer. She held the position of senior editor at the publication for over 20 years. In her stint as editor, she was instrumental in publishing black American authors like Toni Cade Bambara, Gayl Jones, Angela Davis, and Muhammad Ali.
From her first book, The Bluest Eye in 1969, her novels bring to reality the social lives of African American women and men, the trauma of slavery and the economic and psychological consequeces of the draconian practice. Her widely popular novel Beloved was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1988.
In 2012, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by US President Barack Obama for her ‘distinct and inclusive voice.’
Gloria Vanderbilt
Gloria Vanderbilt was an artist, author, fashion designer, and socialite. She died on June 17, aged 95, from stomach cancer.
As heiress to the Vanderbilt fortune, Gloria was in the limelight from a young age. Her mother and paternal aunt were embroiled in a custody battle that received wide public attention. Declared as the ‘poor little rich girl’ after the court trials, Gloria was infamous for her marriages and instinctive sense of style.
In the late 1960s, she started receiving recognition for her paintings and collages. This led her to her foray into textile design and then produced a line of denims that fused mass markets and luxury in the 1980s. The denim line made her more famous and rich. However, later on, she had to sell most of her fortune to pay off debts, after which she solely concentrated on art and writing. She published six memoirs, several books including one on collage and one on interior design. Her last book was a memoir she wrote along with her son - the famous CNN news anchor Anderson Cooper called The Rainbow Comes and Goes.
Sushma Swaraj
Sushma Swaraj, the BJP stalwart passed away on August 6 in Delhi following a heart attack. Sushma Swaraj’s stint as External Affairs minister from 2014 to 2019 made her the second woman and the first full-fledged woman minister to hold the post. Her quick responses on ground and on Twitter to help Indian diaspora won many hearts.
Sushma Swaraj, 67, had served four terms in the Lok Sabha. She entered politics at a very young age. Even though her father was associated with the RSS, she began her political career with the Janata Party in Haryana. At the age of 25, she was the youngest cabinet minister in the Haryana government in 1977.
Later, she joined the BJP and took up women’s issues within the party and the public platform. BJP’s decision to have 33 percent reservation for women among office bearers was due to Sushma’s efforts.
She served as Minister of Information and Broadcasting and Health Minister in the Vajpayee government.
Sheila Dikshit
Delhi’s longest-serving chief minister, Sheila Dikshit passed away at 81 after a prolonged illness on July 20. She served as CM for 15 years from 1998 to 2013. She was seen as an outsider when she became the Chief Minister. Her leadership in the capital saw a push in infrastructural development. She is credited with fastening the work of Delhi metro, switching public transport to CNG and construction of 70 flyovers to ease traffic woes. However, her tenure was also marred by controversies like the Commonwealth scandal.
She came with little political background. Her father-in-law Uma Shankar Dikshit was a close associate of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. She was noticed by Indira Gandhi when she was helping her father-in-law. Indira Gandhi nominated her as a member of the Indian delegation to the UN Commission on the status of women.
She was first elected to the parliament from Kannauj constituency in1984 and served as a Union Minister from 1986-1989 in Rajiv Gandhi’s government. She was a close associate of Rajiv Gandhi and after his death, she was out of the political spectrum for a while. After Sonia Gandhi became the Congress Party President, she resumed her political work. She was a Gandhi family favourite and also shared a personal bond with Rahul Gandhi.
Kanchan Chaudhary Bhattacharya
Kanchan Chaudhary Bhattacharya was the first woman DGP in the country. She died aged 72 on August 26 following an illness. She was the second woman IPS officer after Kiran Bedi. In2004, she was made DGP of Uttarakhand. During her tenure, she handled the high-profile murder case of national badminton champion Syed Modi and the Reliance-Bombay Dyeing case.
After 33 years in the police force, she tried her hand at politics. She contested the 2014 Lok Sabha election on Aam Aadmi Party’s ticket from Haridwar constituency, but lost at the polls.
She was awarded the President’s Police Medal for distinguished service and the Rajiv Gandhi award for excellent all-round performance.
In late 80s, her sister Kavita Chaudhary produced a TV serial based on her life and struggles in becoming an IPS officer called Udaan, which aired on Doordarshan.
(Edited by Rekha Balakrishnan)