Decades before corporate India began talking about gender equality, one young woman quietly rewrote the rules of who could belong in the world of finance. R. Sivabhogam, today remembered as India’s first woman Chartered Accountant, cracked open a field dominated entirely by men at a time when even higher education for women was considered a luxury.

A REBEL WITH A REGISTER

Born in 1907 in Tamil Nadu, Sivabhogam’s early life did not hint at the trailblazer she would become. But everything changed when she stepped into the world of numbers. Her academic brilliance stood out, and she soon found herself drawn to accountancy a profession that had no women in it, no role models, no roadmap.

When she first applied for the CA examinations, people laughed. “This is not work for girls,” she was re

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