In the early 1900’s, women were very much meant to stay in the house, both here and in the West. However, a slim, pint-sized Indian girl, Behroze Cursetjee, thought otherwise.

Born in Bombay, in a middle class Parsi family, she travelled widely over the province with her father who was a government servant. “I was always a very naughty child,” she laughed. “I ran wild for years, never going to school till I was 13. Then I caught up quickly and passed my Matric.”

In 1890, she came to visit the new Victoria Terminus Station and the much talked of Esplanade House – the residence of Jamsetji Tata.

Behroze Cursetjee’s father was a sportsman and a Cambridge Rowing Blue, a friend of Jamsetji Tata and his sons. Although Jamsetji died in Germany the year before she joined the organisation, Behroze had vivid recollections of the patriarchal old man with the deep, gruff voice and the snow white beard.

In those days, girls were not taught either mathematics or any of the subjects that would have been so useful to her later on.

Then came the day when Behroze fell on hard times, she decided to contribute to the budget. With many misgivings, she was allowed to work in her own home, doing the genteel labour of embroidery and fine sewing. However, one day a phrenologist read her “bumps” and told her she would definitely take to business life, advising her to study shorthand typing.

An elderly man and his wife taught her privately. Thus equipped, she started in on a stenographer’s job on September 4, 1905 at Sir Dorabji Tata’s residence, at Esplanade House, Bombay.

Twenty-three year-old Behroze Cursetjee was paid the then quite handsome salary of Rs. 30.00 per month. When she left Tatas, thirty-eight years later, she was earning a four-figure salary as Secretary of The Tata Iron and Steel Company and the years between tell a remarkable story of employer and employee.

Tatas has been a symbol of progress, and no old-fashioned ideas of the inequality of the sexes have ever prevailed in the firm. Today, there are many women holding executive positions in various Tata Companies.

When Behroze Cursetjee joined the Tata Group there was only one other woman, employed as a stenographer, in the whole firm.

When she first joined Tatas she was just a stenographer. With her lack of technical education Behroze had to study in her spare time and finally came a night when she flung herself on her bed and wept with despair. “It’s no good,” she told her sister, “I’ll never make a success of my job. I can’t learn all these things.”  Encouraging words from her sister persuaded her to carry on and decided not to give up just yet.

How she smiled later when she was made Secretary of the enormous organisation TISCO, the largest iron and steel works in the British Empire and the third largest in the world.  Little did she imagine in those early years that she would reach such heights?

Behroze Cursetjee retired after completing nearly forty years of a non-stop progressive career with the Steel Company.