Women got only 11 percent representation in Dr Manmohan Singh's Council of Ministers, that is seven berths in the 68-member United Progressive Alliance government.
Meira Kumar -- daughter of the late Babu Jagjivan Ram, a minister in the Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi and Morarji Desai Cabinets -- is the only lady Cabinet minister.
Six other women were administered the oath as ministers of state with independent charge or just as plain ministers of state.
Renuka Choudhary, the Congress MP from Andhra Pradesh, and Kumari Selja, the Congress MP from Haryana, were appointed ministers of state with independent charge. Selja, the youngest minister in the Narasimha Rao government, maintains the distinction of being the youngest minister in the Congress-led government.
Banabaka Lakshmi of the Congress and Subbalakshmi Jagadeesan of the DMK along with Kanti Singh of the RJD and Suryakanta Patil of the NCP completed the list of lady ministers.
The UPA's draft Common Minimum Programme seeks to 'fully empower women politically, educationally, economically and legally.'
