ThinkHer

In today's society, teaching is often a preferred profession for women as it is perceived to have a work-life balance. Additionally, it also doesn't threaten the traditional gender roles of nurturing and caregiving. But in 1848, when Savitribai Phule, India's first female teacher, took up teaching, she was stepping into something dangerous. She was threatened and attacked not just for teaching but for daring to teach those who weren't supposed to learn. Savitribai Phule was born on  3rd January 1831 in Naigaon, Maharashtra. These were the times when access to learning was restricted by gender and caste. Patriarchal customs, incorrect religious interpretations, and colonialism ensured that access to education rested in the hands of a few men. Savitribai, along with her husband Jyotirao Phule, challenged every institution-family, patriarchy,  religion, custom, and state that denied education for all. At the age of 9, Savitribai married 13-year-old Jyotirao Phule and moved...

I had heard of Bertha Lutz before—as a women’s rights activist, a leader in Brazil’s suffragist movement, and one of the four women who signed the UN Charter in 1945, the document that officially established the United Nations. That’s how she’s usually remembered: a fierce feminist, a diplomat, someone who stood her ground at the world’s most important political tables. But what surprised me was where else her name shows up—not in laws, monuments or even street names, but in frogs and lizards!! It turns out Bertha Lutz was not only a political force, but also a trained biologist and naturalist. Before her name became tied to international diplomacy, she was studying amphibians at the Sorbonne and working as a researcher at Brazil’s National Museum. Her background in biology wasn’t a footnote—it shaped the way she thought, worked, and fought. She approached activism with the same discipline and curiosity she applied to science. I’m often struck, in conversations with fellow researchers,...

I recently read ' What Stars Are Made Of ' , Donovan Moore’s biography of Cecilia Payne, and right from the prologue, I found myself pulled into the quiet intensity of her life. Moore describes Payne working late into the winter nights of 1924 in a cramped office at the Harvard College Observatory. The image is stark: a small desk, a full ashtray, mounting exhaustion, and the creeping anxiety of financial strain.  Reading this, I was reminded of a time when I was working in a lab with an uncertain finances, when everyday concerns like rent and groceries lingered in my mind, quietly pulling focus from the work at hand. Someone once told me, almost casually, that " science is the cure for all such issues ". I remember how that comment unsettled me. How was I supposed to lose myself in scientific curiosity when practical worries kept pressing in?  Reading about Payne didn’t just stir that anger again, instead it added something else: a deep, conflicted respect. She perse...

In the early 1900s, the subatomic world was full of mystery, invisible forces, and unanswered questions. Scientists were drawn towards this invisible drama. However, only a few had the courage and determination to explore these unknown worlds and unravel their mysteries for people like us. Bibha Chowdhuri was one such scientist who pioneered the study of cosmic rays, the high-speed space bullets that crash into Earth's atmosphere. Bibha means 'light' in Bengali. In both name and nature, Bibha was a radiant force in Indian science. Born in Kolkata in 1913 to Banku Bihari Chowdhuri, a doctor, and Urmila Devi, Bibha was the third child in a family of six children. She was encouraged to pursue education at a time when few women entered science. In 1936, she earned her M.Sc. in Physics from the University of Calcutta—the only woman in her batch. Her academic excellence naturally led her to the field of research. Made on Canva @ThinkHer Although she reached the doorstep of resear...