Ethiraj College for Women is an arts and science college for women in Chennai, India, managed by the Ethiraj College Trust. It was founded in 1948 by the barrister V. L. Ethiraj of Vellore.

History

Chairmen

Source:^[1]

• V. L. Ethiraj (1948–60)
• V. T. Rangaswami (1960–72)
• N. Mahalingam (1972–80)
• Justice S. Natarajan (1980–98)
• Justice S. Jagadeesan (1998-2008)
• A. M. Swaminathan, IAS (Retd.) (2008–13)
• V. M. Muralidharan (2013–19)
• Chandra Devi Thanikachalam (2019–22)
• V. M. Muralidharan (2022–present)

Principals

Source:^[2]

• Subur Parthasarathy (1948–49, 1950–52)
• Mona Hensman (1953–60)
• Evangeline Matthew (1960–76)
• K. Vasanthi Devi (1976–84)
• N. A. Qadir (1984–85)
• Keser Chander (1985–88)
• Yasodha Shanmugasundaram (1988–94)
• Indhrani Sridharan (1994-2005)
• M. Thavamani (2005–11)
• Jothi Kumaravel (2011–14)
• A. Nirmala (2014–18)
• S. Kothai (2019–22)
• S. Uma Gowrie (2023-present)

Ranking

Ethiraj College for Women was ranked 65 amongst colleges in India by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) in 2022.^[3]

Notable alumni

• Trisha Krishnan, actress
• Aishwarya Rajesh, actress
• Chandini Tamilarasan, actress
• Sreethu Nair, Actress
• Dhivyadharshini, TV host
• Dhivya Suryadevara, economist, former CFO of both the General Motors, and Stripe.
• Dipika Pallikal, Indian squash player
• Jayanthi Natarajan, politician
• Joshna Chinappa, Indian squash player
• Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, politician and Thoothukudi Constituency Member of Parliament (LS)
• Latha Rajinikanth, film producer and singer
• Leesha Eclairs, TV actress
• Madhumila, TV actress
• Meenakshi Chitharanjan, Indian classical dancer and choreographer
• Molly Easo Smith, Indian-American professor
• Padma Subrahmanyam, Indian classical dancer and musician
• Preetha Krishna, businesswoman
• Sudha Ragunathan, singer
• Sudha Shah, former Indian cricketer and national coach
• Sujata Sridhar, former Indian cricketer
• Sriya Reddy, actress
• Shvetha Jaishankar, model, entrepreneur, author, beauty pageant title holder
• Tamilisai Soundararajan, doctor, politician, and the Governor of Telangana
• Thamizhachi Thangapandian, South Chennai Constituency Member of Parliament (LS)
• J. Vijaya, India's first woman herpetologist
• Srinisha Jayaseelan, singer
• Priyanka Deshpande, television anchor and actress
• Devaki Vijayaraman, television cook and the winner of MasterChef India – Tamil (season 1)
• Roshini Haripriyan, television actress
• Vibha Batra, author, poet, adperson