Indira Gandhi，the fourth Prime Minister of India
1976
Woman is the home and the home is the basis of society.It is as we build our homes that we can build our country.
女人是家，而家是社会的根基，就像我们要先建设自己的家园才能更好地建设国家。
Indira Gandhi
背景故事
当前世界各地还存在着各种不平等，虽然性别歧视已经得到很大的改善，但仍然还存在着各方面的不平等。尤其在教育方面。
甘地夫人是印度独立以来的第一位女总理。演讲中甘地夫人提到女人是家，而家是社会的基础，就像我们能建设自己的家园我们才能建设我们的国家。并一再提到要提高妇女的受教育程度。
名人简介
里雅达希尼·甘地（1917年11月19日—1984年10月31日），是印度独立后首任总理贾瓦哈拉尔·尼赫鲁的女儿，是印度近代最为著名及存有争论的政治人物之一。她在印度人民心目中享有崇高威望的地位。曾担任两届印度总理，在最后任期期间遇刺身亡。她一方面为印度在冷战时期的发展做出了不少的贡献，但另一方面亦因政治管理上的方针而令其政绩蒙上阴影。因其领导印度的十六年间政治方针相当硬朗、立场坚定，故后人亦称其为“印度铁娘子”。
英迪拉·甘地出生在印度北方邦阿拉哈巴德市的一个名门望族家庭里。其祖父莫蒂拉尔·尼赫鲁是一个有声望的大律师，他为这个小孙女起名英迪拉，意思是吉祥女神。其父曾预言：“我们这个女孩可能会胜过1000个男孩。”她最后印证了父亲的这句话，“我何止胜过1000个男孩”。
演讲赏析
What Educated Women Can Do
Indira Gandhi，the fourth Prime Minister of India
1976
An ancient Sanskrit saying says，woman is the home and the home is the basis of society.It is as we build our homes that we can build our country.If the home is inadequate-either inadequate in material goods and necessities or inadequate in the sort of friendly，loving atmosphere that every child needs to grow and develop-then that country cannot have harmony and no country which does not have harmony can grow in any direction at all.
That is why women’s education is almost more important than the education of boys and men.We-and by“we”I do not mean only we in India but all the world-have neglected women education.It is fairly recent.Of course，not to you but when I was a child，the story of early days of women‘s education in England，for instance，was very current.Everybody remembered what had happened in the early days.
Now，we have got education and there is a debate all over the country whether this education is adequate to the needs of society or the needs of our young people.I am one of those who always believe that education needs a thorough overhauling.But at the same time，I think that everything in our education is not bad，that even the present education has produced very fine men and women，specially scientists and experts in different fields，who are in great demand all over the world and even in the most affluent countries.Many of our young people leave us and go abroad because they get higher salaries，they get better conditions of work.
Our country is a very rich country.It is rich in culture，it is rich in many old traditions-old and even modern tradition.Of course，it has a lot of bad things too and some of the bad things are in the society-superstition，which has grown over the years and which sometimes clouds over the shining brightness of ancient thought and values，eternal values.Then，of course，there is the physical poverty of large numbers of our people.That is something which is ugly and that hampers the growth of millions of young boys and girls.Now，all these bad things we have to fight against and that is what we are doing since Independence.
As I said，we do have many shortcomings，whether it is the government，whether it is the society.Some are due to our traditions because，as I said，not all tradition is good.And one of the biggest responsibilities of the educated women today is how to synthesize what has been valuable and timeless in our ancient traditions with what is good and valuable in modern thought.All that is modern is not good just as all that is old is neither all good nor all bad.We have to decide，not once and for all but almost every week，every month what is coming out that is good and useful to our country and what of the old we can keep and enshrine in our society.To be modern，most people think that it is something of a manner of dress or a manner of speaking or certain habits and customs，but that is not really being modern.It is a very superficial part of modernity.
For instance，when I cut my hair，it was because of the sort of life that I was leading.We were all in the movement.You simply could not have long hair and go in the villages and wash it every day.So，when you lead a life，a particular kind of life，your clothes，your everything has to fit into that life if you are to be efficient.If you have to go in the villages and you have to bother whether your clothes are going to be dirty，then you cannot be a good worker.You have to forget everything of that kind.That is why，gradually，clothes and so on have changed in some countries because of the changes in the life-style.Does it suit our life-style or what we want to do or not？If it does，maybe we have to adopt some of these things not merely because it is done in another country and perhaps for another purpose.But what clothes we wear is really quite unimportant.What is important is how we are thinking.