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  • About the Library
  • Awesome Women Resources
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  • Home
  • What is an Awesome Woman?
  • Activists & Community Builders
    • Oyinkan Abayomi
    • Jane Addams
    • Fatima al-Fihri
    • Jessie Daniel Ames
    • Susan B. Anthony
    • Inessa Armand
    • Ella Baker
    • Josephine Butler
    • Mary Shadd Cary
    • Septima Clark
    • Dorothy Day
    • Durgabai Deshmukh
    • Nawal El Saadawi
    • Lady Bird Johnson
    • Helen Keller
    • Coretta Scott King
    • Anne Carroll Moore
    • Rosa Parks
    • Alice Paul
    • Eleanor Roosevelt
    • Ghenia Avril de Sainte-Croix
    • Sophie Scholl
    • Doria Shafik
    • Elizabeth Cady Stanton
    • Sojourner Truth
    • Harriet Tubman
    • Malala Yousafzai
  • Athletes
    • Ball Sports
      • Althea Gibson
      • Mia Hamm
      • Billie Jean King
      • Lisa Leslie
      • Nancy Lieberman
      • Cheryl Miller
      • Jackie Mitchell
      • Martina Navratilova
      • Annika Sorenstam
      • Toni Stone
      • Pat Summitt
      • Sheryl Swoopes
      • Serena Williams
      • Venus Williams
      • Lynette Woodard
    • Body Sports
      • Nicola Adams
      • Laila Ali
      • Simone Biles
      • Bonnie Blair
      • Alice Coachman
      • Nadia Comaneci
      • Dominique Dawes
      • Keiko Fukuda
      • Tanni Grey-Thompson
      • Sonja Henie
      • Florence Griffith Joyner
      • Jackie Joyner-Kersee
      • Ibtihaj Muhammad
      • Annie Smith Peck
      • Wilma Rudolph
      • Junko Tabei
      • Lindsey Vonn
      • Kristi Yamaguchi
      • "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias
    • Water Sports
      • Anita DeFrantz
      • Gertrude Ederle
      • Katie Ledecky
      • Ellen MacArthur
      • Dara Torres
  • Authors
    • Ama Ata Aidoo
    • Anna Akhmatova
    • Louisa May Alcott
    • Isabel Allende
    • Maya Angelou
    • Jane Austen
    • Mary Ritter Beard
    • Hildegard von Bingen
    • Nellie Bly
    • Gwendolyn Brooks
    • Octavia Butler
    • Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz
    • Tsitsi Dangarembga
    • Emily Dickinson
    • Marjory Stoneman Douglas
    • Lorraine Hansberry
    • Toni Morrison
    • Sappho
    • Harriet Beecher Stowe
    • Ida B. Wells
  • Business & Finance
    • Mary Kay Ash
    • Olive Ann Beech
    • Polly Bemis
    • Marguerite Boucicaut
    • Juana Briones
    • Clara Brown
    • Nellie Cashman
    • Coco Chanel
    • Nicole-Barbe Clicquot
    • Ellen Demorest
    • Katharine Graham
    • Hetty Green
    • Isabella Greenway
    • Annie Turnbo Malone
    • Indra Nooyi
    • Charley Parkhurst
    • Eliza Pinckney
    • Lydia Pinkham
    • Mary Ellen Pleasant
    • Muriel Siebert
    • Madam C.J. Walker
    • Maggie Lena Walker
    • Marie Webster
    • Oprah Winfrey
  • Civil Servants, Teachers, & World Leaders
    • Corazon Aquino
    • Queen Yaa Asantewaa
    • Mavis Batey
    • Mary McLeod Bethune
    • Empress Taytu Betul
    • Queen Boudicca
    • Mary Bowser
    • Charlotte Hawkins Brown
    • Gro Harlem Brundtland
    • Nannie Helen Burroughs
    • Empress Catherine II of Russia
    • Violeta Barrios de Chamorro
    • Shirley Chisholm
    • Pharaoh Cleopatra VII
    • Sarah Emma Edmonds
    • Queen Elizabeth I of England
    • Ruth Bader Ginsburg
    • Pharaoh Hatshepsut
    • Noor Inayat Khan
    • Belva Lockwood
    • Patsy Mink
    • Sandra Day O'Connor
    • Deborah Sampson
    • Trung Sisters
  • Computer Science & Math
    • Maria Agnesi
    • Jean Bartik
    • Kimberly Bryant
    • Annie Easley
    • Sophie Germain
    • Margaret Hamilton
    • Grace Hopper
    • Hypatia
    • Katherine Johnson
    • Sofya Kovalevskaya
    • Ada Lovelace
    • Maryam Mirzakhani
    • Emmy Noether
    • Ruchi Sanghvi
    • Dorothy Vaughan
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    • Bessie Coleman
    • Amelia Earhart
    • Amy Johnson
    • Sacagawea
    • Freya Stark
    • Bessie Stringfield
    • Valentina Tereshkova
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    • 1900 - present
      • Rachel Carson
      • Eugenie Clark
      • Sylvia Earle
      • Dian Fossey
      • Rosalind Franklin
      • Jane Goodall
      • Ruth Handler
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      • Shirley Ann Jackson
      • Stephanie Kwolek
      • Hedy Lamarr
      • Mary Leakey
      • Wangari Maathai
      • Mary Sherman Morgan
      • Ellen Ochoa
      • Sally Ride
      • Stephanie Schwabe
      • Donna Shirley
      • Kathryn Sullivan
      • Ruth Wakefield
      • Peggy Whitson
      • Wu Chien-Shiung
    • 1800 - 1899
      • Hertha Ayrton
      • Florence Bascom
      • Katharine Burr Blodgett
      • Annie Jump Cannon
      • Martha Coston
      • Marie Curie
      • Lillian Gilbreth
      • Margaret E. Knight
      • Lise Meitner
      • Ynes Mexia
      • Maria Mitchell
    • - 1799
      • Mary Anning
      • Marie d'Arconville
      • Laura Bassi
      • Emilie du Chatelet
      • Catharine Littlefield Greene
      • Maria Sibylla Merian
      • Wang Zhenyi
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    • Sara Josephine Baker
    • Alice Ball
    • Clara Barton
    • Patricia Bath
    • Elizabeth Blackwell
    • Louyse Bourgeoise Boursier
    • Rachel Fuller Brown
    • Mamie Phipps Clark
    • Gertrude Belle Elion
    • Marie Equi
    • Elizabeth Hazen
    • Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin
    • Karen Horney
    • Mae Jemison
    • Anandibai Joshee
    • Mary Eliza Mahoney
    • Florence Nightingale
    • Ogino Ginko
    • Mary Seacole
    • Jane Cooke Wright
    • Rosalyn Yalow
  • Performance Artists
    • Alicia Alonso
    • Marian Anderson
    • Josephine Baker
    • Lucille Ball
    • Misty Copeland
    • Dorothy Dandridge
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    • Ella Fitzgerald
    • Evelyn Glennie
    • Martha Graham
    • Audrey Hepburn
    • Katharine Hepburn
    • Billie Holiday
    • Nichelle Nichols
    • Annie Oakley
    • Dolly Parton
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    • Yma Sumac
    • Maria Tallchief
    • Rosetta Tharpe
    • Raven Wilkinson
  • Visual Artists
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    • Julia Margaret Cameron
    • Judy Chicago
    • Artemisia Gentileschi
    • Alice Guy-Blache
    • Maija Isola
    • Lois Mailou Jones
    • Frida Kahlo
    • Yayoi Kusama
    • Dorothea Lange
    • Edmonia Lewis
    • Julia Morgan
    • Marianne North
    • Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun
  • Picture Book Biographies
  • Bulletin of Awesomosity (aka, the blog)
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Durgabai Deshmukh

July 15, 1909 - May 9, 1981
(​​Rajahmundry, India - Narasannapeta, India)
Towards Just and Equitable Development: Durgabai Deshmukh Memorial Lectures
  • WOMEN'S RIGHTS & ANTICOLONIAL ACTIVIST
  • Adding "bai" to women's names was a common custom throughout India at the time, so although she was named "Durga" at birth, she became known as "Durgabai"
  • Forced into an arranged marriage at eight years old, she left her husband a few years later and became active in the anticolonial movement while still a child
  • In support of the nationalist boycott of the English language, she quit school when she was twelve years old and started her own Hindi-speaking school
  • In 1930 she led her district's participation in the Salt Satyagraha, a country-wide civil disobedience campaign that was initiated by Mahatma Gandhi to protest the salt tax
  • Arrested multiple times for her activism
  • Founded the Andhra Mahila Sabha (Andhra Women's Conference), which established educational and job training centers for women, and is now India's largest charitable organization that serves women and children
  • Earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in political science, followed by her law degree in 1942
  • Worked as an Advocate at the Madras High Court
  • ONLY woman on the panel that drafted a constitution for newly independent India
  • After a failed run for Parliament in 1952, she joined the Planning Commission and was one of the key architects of the country's social welfare policies
  • Founded the Central Social Welfare Board, a governmental body that supports local development and women's education
  • Represented her country in several capacities, including as chairperson of the National Committee on Girls' and Women's Education, delegate to the Second Commonwealth Education Conference, and delegate to the 1963 World Food Congress in Washington, D.C.
  • Awarded one of India's highest civilian honors, the Padma Vibushan, for her public service

So. Very. Gracious.

After her first husband died, Deshmukh, who by then was remarried, helped his widow get job training -- and even let her live with them.
Bibliography: Deshpande, Prachi. "Deshmukh, Durgabai." The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History, Vol. 2, Oxford University Press, 2008, 42.

Support this organization dedicated to preserving her story & mission:

Andhra Mahila Sabha

Books by this Awesome Woman

Research

Social welfare in India
Towards Just and Equitable Development: Durgabai Deshmukh Memorial Lectures

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  • Home
  • What is an Awesome Woman?
  • Activists & Community Builders
    • Oyinkan Abayomi
    • Jane Addams
    • Fatima al-Fihri
    • Jessie Daniel Ames
    • Susan B. Anthony
    • Inessa Armand
    • Ella Baker
    • Josephine Butler
    • Mary Shadd Cary
    • Septima Clark
    • Dorothy Day
    • Durgabai Deshmukh
    • Nawal El Saadawi
    • Lady Bird Johnson
    • Helen Keller
    • Coretta Scott King
    • Anne Carroll Moore
    • Rosa Parks
    • Alice Paul
    • Eleanor Roosevelt
    • Ghenia Avril de Sainte-Croix
    • Sophie Scholl
    • Doria Shafik
    • Elizabeth Cady Stanton
    • Sojourner Truth
    • Harriet Tubman
    • Malala Yousafzai
  • Athletes
    • Ball Sports
      • Althea Gibson
      • Mia Hamm
      • Billie Jean King
      • Lisa Leslie
      • Nancy Lieberman
      • Cheryl Miller
      • Jackie Mitchell
      • Martina Navratilova
      • Annika Sorenstam
      • Toni Stone
      • Pat Summitt
      • Sheryl Swoopes
      • Serena Williams
      • Venus Williams
      • Lynette Woodard
    • Body Sports
      • Nicola Adams
      • Laila Ali
      • Simone Biles
      • Bonnie Blair
      • Alice Coachman
      • Nadia Comaneci
      • Dominique Dawes
      • Keiko Fukuda
      • Tanni Grey-Thompson
      • Sonja Henie
      • Florence Griffith Joyner
      • Jackie Joyner-Kersee
      • Ibtihaj Muhammad
      • Annie Smith Peck
      • Wilma Rudolph
      • Junko Tabei
      • Lindsey Vonn
      • Kristi Yamaguchi
      • "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias
    • Water Sports
      • Anita DeFrantz
      • Gertrude Ederle
      • Katie Ledecky
      • Ellen MacArthur
      • Dara Torres
  • Authors
    • Ama Ata Aidoo
    • Anna Akhmatova
    • Louisa May Alcott
    • Isabel Allende
    • Maya Angelou
    • Jane Austen
    • Mary Ritter Beard
    • Hildegard von Bingen
    • Nellie Bly
    • Gwendolyn Brooks
    • Octavia Butler
    • Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz
    • Tsitsi Dangarembga
    • Emily Dickinson
    • Marjory Stoneman Douglas
    • Lorraine Hansberry
    • Toni Morrison
    • Sappho
    • Harriet Beecher Stowe
    • Ida B. Wells
  • Business & Finance
    • Mary Kay Ash
    • Olive Ann Beech
    • Polly Bemis
    • Marguerite Boucicaut
    • Juana Briones
    • Clara Brown
    • Nellie Cashman
    • Coco Chanel
    • Nicole-Barbe Clicquot
    • Ellen Demorest
    • Katharine Graham
    • Hetty Green
    • Isabella Greenway
    • Annie Turnbo Malone
    • Indra Nooyi
    • Charley Parkhurst
    • Eliza Pinckney
    • Lydia Pinkham
    • Mary Ellen Pleasant
    • Muriel Siebert
    • Madam C.J. Walker
    • Maggie Lena Walker
    • Marie Webster
    • Oprah Winfrey
  • Civil Servants, Teachers, & World Leaders
    • Corazon Aquino
    • Queen Yaa Asantewaa
    • Mavis Batey
    • Mary McLeod Bethune
    • Empress Taytu Betul
    • Queen Boudicca
    • Mary Bowser
    • Charlotte Hawkins Brown
    • Gro Harlem Brundtland
    • Nannie Helen Burroughs
    • Empress Catherine II of Russia
    • Violeta Barrios de Chamorro
    • Shirley Chisholm
    • Pharaoh Cleopatra VII
    • Sarah Emma Edmonds
    • Queen Elizabeth I of England
    • Ruth Bader Ginsburg
    • Pharaoh Hatshepsut
    • Noor Inayat Khan
    • Belva Lockwood
    • Patsy Mink
    • Sandra Day O'Connor
    • Deborah Sampson
    • Trung Sisters
  • Computer Science & Math
    • Maria Agnesi
    • Jean Bartik
    • Kimberly Bryant
    • Annie Easley
    • Sophie Germain
    • Margaret Hamilton
    • Grace Hopper
    • Hypatia
    • Katherine Johnson
    • Sofya Kovalevskaya
    • Ada Lovelace
    • Maryam Mirzakhani
    • Emmy Noether
    • Ruchi Sanghvi
    • Dorothy Vaughan
  • Daredevils, Explorers, & Pilots
    • Ann Bancroft
    • Bessie Coleman
    • Amelia Earhart
    • Amy Johnson
    • Sacagawea
    • Freya Stark
    • Bessie Stringfield
    • Valentina Tereshkova
  • Engineers, Inventors, & Scientists
    • 1900 - present
      • Rachel Carson
      • Eugenie Clark
      • Sylvia Earle
      • Dian Fossey
      • Rosalind Franklin
      • Jane Goodall
      • Ruth Handler
      • Mary Jackson
      • Shirley Ann Jackson
      • Stephanie Kwolek
      • Hedy Lamarr
      • Mary Leakey
      • Wangari Maathai
      • Mary Sherman Morgan
      • Ellen Ochoa
      • Sally Ride
      • Stephanie Schwabe
      • Donna Shirley
      • Kathryn Sullivan
      • Ruth Wakefield
      • Peggy Whitson
      • Wu Chien-Shiung
    • 1800 - 1899
      • Hertha Ayrton
      • Florence Bascom
      • Katharine Burr Blodgett
      • Annie Jump Cannon
      • Martha Coston
      • Marie Curie
      • Lillian Gilbreth
      • Margaret E. Knight
      • Lise Meitner
      • Ynes Mexia
      • Maria Mitchell
    • - 1799
      • Mary Anning
      • Marie d'Arconville
      • Laura Bassi
      • Emilie du Chatelet
      • Catharine Littlefield Greene
      • Maria Sibylla Merian
      • Wang Zhenyi
  • Health & Medicine
    • Virginia Apgar
    • Sara Josephine Baker
    • Alice Ball
    • Clara Barton
    • Patricia Bath
    • Elizabeth Blackwell
    • Louyse Bourgeoise Boursier
    • Rachel Fuller Brown
    • Mamie Phipps Clark
    • Gertrude Belle Elion
    • Marie Equi
    • Elizabeth Hazen
    • Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin
    • Karen Horney
    • Mae Jemison
    • Anandibai Joshee
    • Mary Eliza Mahoney
    • Florence Nightingale
    • Ogino Ginko
    • Mary Seacole
    • Jane Cooke Wright
    • Rosalyn Yalow
  • Performance Artists
    • Alicia Alonso
    • Marian Anderson
    • Josephine Baker
    • Lucille Ball
    • Misty Copeland
    • Dorothy Dandridge
    • Ellen DeGeneres
    • Katherine Dunham
    • Ella Fitzgerald
    • Evelyn Glennie
    • Martha Graham
    • Audrey Hepburn
    • Katharine Hepburn
    • Billie Holiday
    • Nichelle Nichols
    • Annie Oakley
    • Dolly Parton
    • Mary Pickford
    • Ma Rainey
    • Rihanna
    • Yma Sumac
    • Maria Tallchief
    • Rosetta Tharpe
    • Raven Wilkinson
  • Visual Artists
    • Etel Adnan
    • Sofonisba Anguissola
    • Mary Blair
    • Margaret Bourke-White
    • Julia Margaret Cameron
    • Judy Chicago
    • Artemisia Gentileschi
    • Alice Guy-Blache
    • Maija Isola
    • Lois Mailou Jones
    • Frida Kahlo
    • Yayoi Kusama
    • Dorothea Lange
    • Edmonia Lewis
    • Julia Morgan
    • Marianne North
    • Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun
  • Picture Book Biographies
  • Bulletin of Awesomosity (aka, the blog)
  • About the Library
  • Awesome Women Resources
  • Contact