In a country with a history spans hundreds of years of exponential gender inequality, there are  woman who not only braved the most stringent conventions, but also etched their names in every field, and science is no exception.

Achievements of female scientists are rarely celebrated by Indian society. Women in any field of science rarely make headlines. That's not to say there aren’t any women in science; for those who did pursue careers in science, the path was never easy and those who have made it have faced massive resistance, often from their own mentors and colleagues. 

Their gender is touted as a reason for their supposed inefficiency and lack of ability. But, these are the women who have shattered ridiculous stereotypes in the best way possible and we celebrate their accomplishments in field of science. 

1. Asima Chatterjee

She is best known for her for her pioneering work in medicinal chemistry. Chatterjee  has contributed immensely on vinca alkaloids and the development of anti-epileptic and anti-malarial drugs. Despite resistance, Chatterjee completed her undergraduate degree in organic chemistry, and went on to win many honours including India’s most prestigious science award in 1961. Her philosophy in life was steeped in a strong work ethic. “I wish to work as long as I live,” she said.

2. Anandibai Joshi

Dr Anandibai Joshi is the first Indian female physician. The Venus crater named Joshee is a tribute to her.  , Anandibai was married at the age of nine to Gopalrao Joshi who was twenty years her senior. He supported hereducation in medicine. At age of 14, she gave birth to a boy, who unfortunately, died soon after. Her own poor health and the death of her son inspired her to start studying medicine. She studied at the Women’s Medical College in Pennsylvania and worked in the Albert Edward hospital after her return to India. 

She stressed the need of Hindu female doctors in India and talked about the goal of opening a medical college for women in India. 

3.   Sunetra Gupta

Sunetra Gupta is an acclaimed essayist and scientist. She works  as a professor of Theoretical Epidemiology at the University of Oxford and has done a commendable work in infectious diseases like flu and malaria, using mathematical models.She studied at Princeton and then received her doctorate from the University of London. Sunetra earned the Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Award for her valuable scientific research

4. Indira Hinduja 

 She is the first gynecologist to  deliver India's first test tube baby. . She introduced the gamete intra-fallopian transfer, which led to the birth of India’s first GIFT baby. 

5. Suman Sahai

A scientist, academic, and campaigner, Suman Sahai dons many mantles . She is a recipient of the Padma Shri, the Norman Borlaug Award and the Outstanding Woman Achiever awards. In 1993, she formed the Gene Campaign, a research and advocacy organisation, which has been instrumental in empowering the rural and tribal communities of India.  She has also actively worked towards demanding transparency and public participation in decisions on genetically modified crops. 

6. Mangala Narlikar

For those who hate Mathematics, Mangala Narlika. dedicated her life to making it simple. She has taught at University of Mumbai and University of Pune and finds joy in making mathematics interesting for students, who dread the subject. Narlikar  finished a Ph.D. in mathematics 16 years after she got married, she also invests a   lot of time in teaching maths to underprivileged kids

7.  Janaki Ammal 

At a time when women had to battle their way through getting a higher education,  Janaki Ammal decided to pursue Botany, and later scientific research in cytogenetics and phytogeography. She served as the Director-General of the Botanical Survey of India (BSI) and  did work on medically important and economically valuable plants

8. Kamala Sohonie

Kamala Sohonie is the first woman to get  the first Indian woman to receive a PhD in a scientific discipline; in her case biochemistry. Battling gender-based prejudice in scientific disciplines, amd throught her life she struggled to make a mark in the male-dominated field of science. At Cambridge, she found that every cell of a plant tissue contained the enzyme ‘cytochrome C’ which was involved in the oxidation of all plant cells.The President of India presented Dr Sohonie the Rashtrapati Award for her incredible and innovative work.

9. Anna Mani 

In 1940, a year after finishing college, Mani received the coveted scholarship to undertake research at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore. She was accepted in Nobel laureate C.V. Raman's laboratory, and she worked on the spectroscopy of diamonds and rubies. She published several research papers and made significant contributions in the field of meteorological instrumentation.

10. Rajeshwari Chatterjee 

Rajeshwari Chatterjee was the first woman engineer from Karnataka. In 1953, after obtaining the PhD degree, she returned to India and joined the Department of Electrical Communication Engineering at IISc as a faculty member. She was the first woman to be on the faculty of Indian Institute of Science. She mentored twenty Ph.D students, wrote over 100 research papers and seven books related to microwave engineering

11. Darshan Ranganathan

Darshan Ranganathan was Indian organic Chemist who was known for her pioneering work in protein folding.. After her Ph D in organic chemistry in T. R. Seshadri’s group at Delhi University in 1966, she won the Senior Research Scholarship of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 to go and work with Derek Barton at the Imperial College, London.

She was the most prolific organic chemist in India, having, in the last five years, a dozen publications in The Journal of the American Chemical Society. She joined IICT, Hyderabad as deputy director but died from breast cancer in 2001.

The make us the proudest! Which one does inpire you?