The perfect ten - women who changed the world Sirima leads

By Carl Muller

Somehow, we missed it - the "Bullet" of September 1, 1998, distributed with "Newsweek".

So what's so important about a magazine that is over a year old? Well, it is because it carried a special survey on the 20th Century's ten top women - the Perfect 10: Women who changed the world. The list was compiled by Diana Simmonds and included Princess Diana, Mother Teresa, Madonna, Germaine Greer, Margaret Thatcher, Maria Callas, Katherine Hepburn, Jill Ker Conway and Marie Curie.

But that's nine. This is what Simmonds had to say about the name she placed at the top:

"All these women are led in 20th Century history, however, by Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the world's first woman prime minister. Born into an aristocratic family in 1916, Bandaranaike came to power in Ceylon after the assassination of her husband, the visionary socialist S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, in 1959. His Sri Lanka (blessed Ceylon) Freedom Party persuaded her to become party leader and the following year she took them to an emphatic and emotional victory. She was defeated in 1965, returned to power in 1970 and stayed by hook or by crook until 1977. In 1980, her civic rights - including the right to run for parliament - were revoked after a presidential commission found her guilty of abuse of power. Five years later she was back on the stump, declaring "the first thing I will do ..... is to get the schools reopened and educate the children again. My last government was a time of industry and agriculture, under President Jayewardene (who had pardoned her) it is the era of the gun and the coffin".

"But it didn't work out quite like that. In September 1994 her charismatic daughter Chandrika, 47, became prime minister, pledging an end to corruption and violence. By November she had become President in a landslide vote and appointed her 78-year-old mother prime minister."

There is so much pride in the re-telling of a story and a glory that is uniquely Sri Lankan, uniquely ours. As Simmonds goes on to say "the Sri Lankan matriarch opened the doors of ambition for millions of Asian women" and reminds us of Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi "one who marched through it to a very different tune".

Writing of her "top ten", Simmonds says that Princess Diana remains "the patron saint of the forever young and beautiful; her image now burnished rather than tarnished, forever the Queen of Hearts".

Of Mother Teresa: "A woman whose humility was backed up by a strong sense of her own place in eternity."

Of Madonna: "A perfectionist in art and business - she understood what she was doing in mixing flamboyant sexuality with feminism. Without her there wouldn't have been a new generation of up front, unabashed, ambitious young women."

Of Germaine Greer: "The leading woman intellectual whose "The Female Eunuch" is the second-biggest seller after the Bible."

Of Margaret Thatcher: " Fascinating leader, important.... She had a role and a sphere which went far beyond her own country."

Of Maria Callas: "She held nothing back she gave herself no protection on stage, she was a true prima donna."

Of Marie Curie: "Her influence reverberates, for good or evil, to this day."

Of Katherine Hepburn: "A Hollywood giant and giant-killer from 1933.... she was role model for other women who also wanted to live their own lives not be dragooned into whatever society thought fit."

Of Jill Ker Conway: "The expatriate woman who is a dazzling success in both American academe and corporate life."

It's certainly something to hug close to us, especially as we wish to select the greatest Sri Lankans of the century.

Our own "back on the stump" matriarch who "leads them all in 20th Century history."

More Plus

Return to Plus Contents