These 10 Women Believed In The Power Of Women’s Web To Unleash Women’s Voices

In a decade, Women’s Web has seen 10000+ women share their voices. Here are some of the earliest women who powered the vision.

As I look back on a decade of Women’s Web, a decade of building a platform for women’s voices, a community, as well as a team and a business, it is hard to find the words to say what this decade means to me.

How do you summarise a decade of learning, fun and struggle, in a few hundred words? How do you express the highs and lows, as well as the everyday experience of what it is like to lead such a community?

These are all major milestones, and close to my heart. But equally special to me are the everyday memories that have accumulated over this decade. When a reader comments or writes in to say that a piece of writing touched her heart. When a woman I meet at an event tells me our work helped her during a difficult divorce. When authors become lifelong friends and cheerleaders for each other.

A decade is a significant chunk of time, and it would be impossible to capture everything that we have done and everything that has happened to us during this time.

Instead, I thought I would take a little time to remember and cherish some of our earliest contributors, who believed in our vision, at a time when it was still raw and untested. Here they are (to the best of my memory, and based on our records; I apologise truly if any of our very early folks have been missed out inadvertently).

R’s Mom

R’s Mom, who at the time, was a young working mother in Mumbai juggling a number of balls, added on one more – to write at Women’s Web. One of her pieces that I personally liked a lot, was On The Delivery Story & Beyond, an account of her own difficult child birth experience, and the need for women to be better informed. It was not an easy piece for her to write, and she did it with a lot of heart.

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Kiran Manral

Noted Indian author with multiple novels across genres to her credit, and erstwhile journalist, Kiran Manral used to run a very popular parenting blog at the time, and I was delighted when she agreed to write for us. Her thoughtful pieces covered many then hardly addressed issues, such as this one on talking about female sexual desire.

Hip Grandma

The Hip Grandma helped us look at issues from her perspective as an older woman who’s seen more of life, has compassion for how people are and yet, a deep interest in social change. One of her pieces that best exemplifies this, is Difficult Choices: How Do You Choose To Break Free?

Preethi

Preethi who is now working in academia in the US, brought to the early Women’s Web, incisive thinking on aspects of gender bias. Her post on Sports & The Glass Ceiling examined how girls are left out of sports from an early age, what the lack of sports results in, and why we need to address this gap.

Anne John

When I’m talking of our early writers, how could I possibly miss Anne, the very first person to join our team as an employee! While it is years since she has left the team, I know that she continues to closely follow our work and cheer for us. Her unique brand of humour gave us many delightful posts, such as this guide for the Indian woman on how to make your man happy.

Cee

A working mother living in the US, Cee had a particular interest in the rise of women in the workplace and her most impactful work was often in this space, such as this exhortation to women, to advocate for themselves.

CP

A scientific researcher who works in the pharmaceutical industry, CP is passionate about the cause of women at work, and particularly girls and women in STEM. I loved this post where she interviewed two female scientists of the 1970s, on the difficulties of building a career in science while raising a family.

Melanie Lobo

A versatile writer whose strength lies in solid research (besides her writing skills), Melanie covered a number of subjects at Women’s Web that need incisive writing, and continues to do so. Her post on how to file a police complaint continues to draw readers even today.

Lavanya

Our very first resident foodie and someone who started exploring healthy eating with local ingredients much before local became a buzzword, Lavanya’s pieces encouraged readers to use familiar as well as forgotten ingredients in healthy and tasty ways. Case in point, this piece on eating more local with millets.

Shweta Ganesh Kumar

Journalist, Travel Columnist & Writer, Shweta is an immensely talented writer with the ability to distil insights from her conversations with people. Her post Why The Phrase Boys Will Be Boys Is Damaging Our Sons, was a winner at the Laadli Media Awards for Gender Sensitivity 2017.

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