Engineering has long been associated with men and has traditionally remained a male-dominated profession. Despite decades of conversations around gender equality, the influence of patriarchy on career choices has remained deeply rooted in Indian society.
But decades before such conversations became mainstream, Ayyalasomayajula Lalitha challenged those expectations. Born in 1919 in Madras, now Chennai, Lalitha went on to become one of India's earliest women engineers and is widely recognised as the country's first woman to earn an engineering degree.
