(This article is part of the Gender Agenda newsletter. To get the newsletter in your inbox every Sunday, subscribe here.)

Last week, three women stood out in the headlines for me. 

The first was Revathi, the one who dared to speak up. In an act of incredible bravery, the head constable in Thoothukudi district of Tamil Nadu chose to testify against her male colleagues despite constant threats, intimidation, and fear that her children may be harmed. Her words proved crucial in a Madurai court, which sentenced to death all the nine policemen involved in the brutal assault of two men — P. Jayaraj, a timber trader; and his son, J. Benicks, who ran a mobile phone service and sales centre — in 2020.

Six years ago, on June 19, Revathi briefly left work to go home and feed her children. When she returned to duty at the police station, she found Benicks and Jayaraj being interrogated. The father and son were beaten for hours. Blood splattered the walls. She heard them moan in pain for hours and refused to participate in the assault. They took ill and died in hospital, as was reported back then in detail here.

Tamil Nadu has a long and troubling history of police brutality. Data show that between 2016-17 and 2021-22, it recorded the highest number of custodial deaths among southern States, while Uttar Pradesh was the highest nationally. In the same period, no police officer in India was convicted for such deaths. This is why this verdict and Revathi’s contribution to it are so significant.

In neighbouring Karnataka’s Kodagu district, Sharanya G.S. survived four days alone in a forest. The 37-year-old woman, from Kozhikode in Kerala, had got lost while trekking in a dense part of the Western Ghats. She mostly survived on water and slept near rocks in a forest where wild animals are sighted frequently, until she was traced. Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar described her as a “very strong lady.”

And then there was Christina Koch, whose journey has been nothing short of extraordinary. One of two mission specialists on Artemis II, she became the first woman to venture into deep space as she journeyed around the moon. Koch is no stranger to breaking records: she was part of the first all-female spacewalk in 2019. Back then, she said on the shifting culture in NASA, “It’s been really nice to see that in the last several years, a lot of that language [men as main participants] has been replaced.” 

All their acts take a great deal of courage and resilience. Revathi chose the truth, justice, and listened to her own conscience over the much easier path; Sharanya showed remarkable presence of mind and grit; and Koch literally reached for the moon.

Often, headlines reduce women’s stories to violence: assault, rape, domestic abuse, dowry, and so on. We also focus on these stories in our newsletters, as we should, because they matter. But when these dominate the headlines, women get reduced to being victims, defined by what happens to them rather than what they can do or overcome.

Ever so often, some stories make us proud and smile. Stories of women who inspire, who remind us of the good in people, and make us root for their dreams. And who show us what strength looks like.

WORDSWORTH 

Biblical patriarchy: Proponents of this believe in the form of marriage that some churches preach, where husbands are given political voices and women do not have the power to vote. Adherents hold that the U.S. is a Christian nation whose laws should reflect Christian tenets. The New York Times reported that this idea is gaining traction beyond the fringe.

TOOLKIT 

In The Rearview Podcast, Sobhana Nair and Jacob Koshy explore the lives of India’s first female doctors, framing their struggle not as a technological quest, but as a profound social rebellion. 

OUCH! 

India has not only treated ladies equally, but they have always been treated at a higher pedestal. There are several judgments of the recent past where there is a concept of ‘patriarchal society’ or there is some ‘gender stereotypes’ etc. They were never there. In Indian society, we worship ladies. So let us not introduce those concepts of ‘patriarchy’ and ‘gender stereotypes’. There has never been (such notions in India).

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta

PEOPLE WE MET

Moogambigai Murugesan, a Bharatanatyam teacher, says she was raised in a family where boys are valued more than girls. She had resigned herself to a government job after college, followed by marriage and children. Until Bharatanatyam came into her life. Then she began teaching schoolchildren the art form in K. Velur, a small village 119 km from Chennai. And adults as well, and realised it was giving her economic independence. “I was delighted when I could buy things with my own money. It has strengthened my body and mind,” she says to V.R. Devika in this piece.