Dharma Lyer

In my family, the first woman to vote was my grandmother Malini Lyer. Malini was born in Tanjore, a city in Southern India, on November 21, 1946. She was the oldest of seven sisters, born into a traditional, Hindu family. When she was three years old, she moved to Kraikudi, a very small town in India which was known only for education and colleges. In this area, the majority of the population consisted of students. After growing up, she proceeded to attend Madras University where she majored in mathematics.

In 1982, Malini and her husband Krishna moved to the United States. Krishna had worked on projects with the United Nations for several years and because of this, they had investments in Southern Texas, where they proceeded to settle and still currently live. From 1982 until now, she has taught calculus at Pace High School in Brownsville, Texas. Malini was given the right to vote in the November 1992 election of Bill Clinton, where she proceeded to vote.

Additionally, not only is she well known nation-wide for her thorough teaching in calculus, she is known for the morals and life lessons she taught her students along the way. One teaching she strongly believes in that greatly pertains to the suffrage movement is, “When something goes wrong, it isn’t one person’s fault, it is everybody’s fault.”  When women did not have the right to vote, it wasn’t just the fault of the president. It was the fault of the people who chose to standby, the authority who stood in the way of the suffragettes and suffragists, the presidents who did not make a change, and everyone for simply not having the knowledge of the concept of equality. In the classroom, Malini and her students share the responsibility for the behavior, performance, and well being of the students.  They take care of one another because as she says, “All people are knowledgeable, it is simply a matter of teaching each other to do the right thing.”