Indira Gandhi served as prime minister for almost 16 years, Pratibha Patil served as President from 2007 to 2012. Indira Gandhi served as prime minister for almost 16 years, Pratibha Patil served as President from 2007 to 2012.

Here is one record India can be proud of. According to US-based ‘fact tank’ Pew Research Center, India is right on top when it comes to countries where women have been at the helm for many years.

While most of the world has never had a women leader, with at least 79 countries yet to see their first, India is among the five that have had one for over 15 years. “India has had the longest stretches with a woman in power, with former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and later President Pratibha Patil serving a combined 21 of the past 50 years,” says the report by Lauren Kent.

The context here is that the United States could well end up having its first woman president if Hillary Clinton is elected at the end of this year. But that will just add the US, the world’s oldest democracy, to the bottom of the pile which has India right on top.

The other countries on top are Ireland and Bangladesh, which have also clocked over 21 years under a women leader.

According to the World Economic Forum, 63 of the 142 nations studied have had a female leder — either as head of government or state — in the 50 years leading up to 2014. However, a majority of these nations had a women in power for less than four years.

In India, Indira Gandhi served as prime minister for almost 16 years. Her first term was from 1966 to 1977 and the second from 1980 to 1984, when she was assassinated. To add to this, Pratibha Patil served as President from 2007 to 2012. While it was not considered for the study, India has also had many strong women leaders in the state including Mayawati in Uttar Pradesh, J Jayalalithaa in Tamil Nadu and Sheila Dikshit in Delhi.

Number of women leaders around the world has grown, but they’re still a small group https://t.co/8j1T3vqTvx pic.twitter.com/12gXgmcs1G — Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) July 30, 2016

Incidentally, another Pew Research had shown how 37 per cent of respondents in US are still not ready for a women leader.

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