Get married or say no to Yale: Indra Nooyi's knotty affair
Nooyi shares how she almost missed out on her second master’s degree in the US because she was unmarried till 22.
By ET Bureau | Updated:
Agencies
By Shannon Tellis
Indra Nooyi shared how she almost missed out on her second master’s degree in the US because she was unmarried till the age of 22.
When Indra Nooyi’s mother found out that the Pepsi CEO would be sharing the stage with actress Priyanka Chopra, her response was: “Tell Priyanka to get married and settle down.”
That didn’t come as a surprise to Nooyi, considering her mother had insisted that she find a husband by the time she was 22. “In a conservative city in southern India, every mother’s dream is to get her daughter married by the age of 18. Twenty, [at] the latest. Once you get settled, you can do whatever you want,” Nooyi said at a recent women’s forum.
Also Read: Want to become a good boss? Read Indra Nooyi’s 7-point guide on managing work, life
Marriage vs. career
According to Nooyi’s mother, it was okay if her daughter aspired to become the prime minister, but marriage was a must first. That rule was tested in 1978 when Nooyi was accepted into the Yale School of Management with a generous financial package. Her parents didn’t try to stop her from applying initially believing that she wouldn’t win a scholarship.
“So [when] the letter comes, I go to my parents and say, ‘Can I go?’ and they go ‘Absolutely no’. And my mum says ‘I’m going to get you married off’. I say, ‘What do you mean married off?’ She says ‘Yeah, you’re 22 years old. It’s high time you got married. No single woman is going to go to the United States’.”
The idea of the aggressive male has to be challenged.
— Cherie Blair, Founder, Cherie Blair Foundation for Women.
Starting her journey
Fortunately for Nooyi, her father refused to discriminate between the boys and the girls in her family and advocated on her behalf. A big family meeting was called where everybody got to weigh in on whether Nooyi would be allowed to pursue her second master’s degree in the US.
She was eventually allowed to go but not before her family called up every friend they knew in America. “Every weekend, I had someone coming to Yale to check on me — whether I was going out with some guy, whether I was drinking or smoking,” said Nooyi, adding, “Of course I didn’t do any of that. I was the biggest nerd.”
Nooyi finally went on to marry Raj K Nooyi at the age of 25. Fast forward 40 years, she is now a mother of two and heads a multi-national company.
BK Goenka, Chairman, Welspun Group
“I take a lot of inspiration from Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo. She is an accomplished business leader who describes herself as an ordinary woman born in a conservative and middle-class family. Being a woman and immigrant made it thrice as difficult for Nooyi to reach this position. But her mantra of working twice as hard as her male counterparts has set her apart. Her rise to power has lit up a fire in every aspirant and proves that nothing is impossible if you are determined.”
Indra Nooyi shared how she almost missed out on her second master’s degree in the US because she was unmarried till the age of 22.
When Indra Nooyi’s mother found out that the Pepsi CEO would be sharing the stage with actress Priyanka Chopra, her response was: “Tell Priyanka to get married and settle down.”
That didn’t come as a surprise to Nooyi, considering her mother had insisted that she find a husband by the time she was 22. “In a conservative city in southern India, every mother’s dream is to get her daughter married by the age of 18. Twenty, [at] the latest. Once you get settled, you can do whatever you want,” Nooyi said at a recent women’s forum.
Also Read: Want to become a good boss? Read Indra Nooyi’s 7-point guide on managing work, life
Marriage vs. career
According to Nooyi’s mother, it was okay if her daughter aspired to become the prime minister, but marriage was a must first. That rule was tested in 1978 when Nooyi was accepted into the Yale School of Management with a generous financial package. Her parents didn’t try to stop her from applying initially believing that she wouldn’t win a scholarship.
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“So [when] the letter comes, I go to my parents and say, ‘Can I go?’ and they go ‘Absolutely no’. And my mum says ‘I’m going to get you married off’. I say, ‘What do you mean married off?’ She says ‘Yeah, you’re 22 years old. It’s high time you got married. No single woman is going to go to the United States’.”
— Cherie Blair, Founder, Cherie Blair Foundation for Women.
Starting her journey
Fortunately for Nooyi, her father refused to discriminate between the boys and the girls in her family and advocated on her behalf. A big family meeting was called where everybody got to weigh in on whether Nooyi would be allowed to pursue her second master’s degree in the US.
She was eventually allowed to go but not before her family called up every friend they knew in America. “Every weekend, I had someone coming to Yale to check on me — whether I was going out with some guy, whether I was drinking or smoking,” said Nooyi, adding, “Of course I didn’t do any of that. I was the biggest nerd.”
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Nooyi finally went on to marry Raj K Nooyi at the age of 25. Fast forward 40 years, she is now a mother of two and heads a multi-national company.
“I take a lot of inspiration from Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo. She is an accomplished business leader who describes herself as an ordinary woman born in a conservative and middle-class family. Being a woman and immigrant made it thrice as difficult for Nooyi to reach this position. But her mantra of working twice as hard as her male counterparts has set her apart. Her rise to power has lit up a fire in every aspirant and proves that nothing is impossible if you are determined.”
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