India's first female president

Ammu Joseph discusses what the election of India's first female president does, and doesn't, mean for women's rights.

Comments

[Murphy]

This is great news for women in India.

Here are some examples of countries that have elected female leaders and have seen great changes:

Women now have the same rights as men and gender discrimination has completely disappeared in Bangladesh after two successive female prime ministers.

The same thing happened in Pakistan after Benazir Bhutto became prime minister.

[Joe Buck]

It means absolutely zero: India's president has almost no power, while India's prime minister is in charge of the government, and Indira Gandhi was PM. It is laughable that anyone thinks that a female Indian president is in any way significant.

It's roughly equivalent (only with less power) to what the US VP office used to be pre-Cheney: the president under a parliamentary republic handles ceremonial occasions, attends state funerals and the like. It's kind of like the Queen of the UK.

[Dr. Rajat Kumar Kujur]

Now that Pratibha Patil is elected as the President of India it should end all the euphorias that the country was forced to witness during the period of her election. Yes , the President of India can do a lot many things and President Kalam had already shown this to the world. Ms. patil's election to the highest office would undoubtedly usher a new era of confidence among the women folk, however, its time to think beyond tokenism. We need to accomplish the task of women empowerment and Pratibha Patil's election may be a important event but it's certainly not the end of the mission. In fact, its now for Pratibha Patil to initiate and ignite changes in our social thought process to bring about women empowerment.