Women cream of Asia’s political crop
INDIA’S Indira Gandhi, Sri Lanka’s Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto, Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh, Corazon Aquino of the Philippines, and Megawati Sukarnoputri of Indonesia — these women leaders dominated south and south-east Asia for much of the past four decades.
Each belonged to a special class of women whose husbands or fathers were their country’s recognised founding father or long-standing political leader. However, while their dynastic links brought them to power, they were not the sole factor keeping them there.
