National Women’s History Month has had its place during March dating as far back as 1987 after Jimmy Carter issued a Presidential Proclamation to honor the extraordinary achievements of women for a week. Though women had been making strides and breaking boundaries since way before then, Phyllis Wheatley, Sojourner Truth and Susan B. Anthony, to name a few, were the affirmation of a need for a month to force us to shine a spotlight on and make phenomenal women known to the rest of the world. As March comes to an end here are a few amazing women and positive things happening in the world for women’s progress.
1922 was titled the Year of the Woman for the large wave of women that flood the floor of politics in the United States and now, again in 2018, the Year of the Woman has come back. So far, at least 575 women have declared their intention to run for the House, the Senate or for governor. The majority of the women candidates running are on the democratic side. Political experts have said this second surge could be in part a response to Donald’s Trump’s presidency as well as the #MeToo movement. But mainly, researchers believe its due to a long-drawn frustration of being ignored and tossed aside finally coming to a head.
The 2018-midterm elections will have 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 34 of the 100 seats in the Senate will be contested alongside 39 state and territorial governorships. With so many women entering the field, it’s important to start looking at your representatives and figure out who is running for what where you live so when the time comes you can make an informed decision.
Courtesy: Politico
In a study conducted by David Miller, he found that U.S children now draw female scientists more often than ever before. Miller came to this conclusion after quantitatively reviewing Draw-A-Scientist studies for a graduate course of his. Draw-A-Scientist is as straightforward as it sounds: children are given a piece of paper and, without any prior discussion about scientists, are asked to draw what a scientist looks like. His review involved looking through the profiles of over 20,000 children. In studies from 1966 and 1977, less than 1% of children drew female scientists in contrast to an average of 28% in subsequent studies conducted in 1985 and 2016. What this means is that children’s perceptions are changing and it’s important to keep pushing women forward in the media and allowing women to have a voice and be represented. To quote Frances McDormand, who won the Oscar for Best Actress in the film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, “Inclusion rider.”
Courtesy: CNN
To honor Women’s History Month, GrubHub, an online and mobile food delivery service, partnered up with Women Chefs & Restaurants (WCR), a supportive resource for women in the culinary industry, to launch RestuarantHER, an online platform that maps out women-led restaurants across the United States. The website is easy to use and only requires you to enter your zip code to give you a list of women-owned restaurants in your area. A quick search with the Tallahassee zip code lists three restaurants, one of them being Food Glorious Food, a restaurant that defines itself through its “Seasonal culinary creations representing a wide variety of world cuisines,” and is definitely worth checking out. The rest can be found on the RestaurantHER website.
Courtesy: RestaurantHER
In Feb. 2018, Cornelia Richter put another check on the women in power box after taking up the post of Vice-President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) headquartered in Rome. IFAD is an international financial institution and a specialized United Nations agency that invests in rural people, empowering them to reduce poverty, increase food security, improve nutrition and strengthen resilience. Prior to IFAD, Ms. Richter worked for the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH starting in 1989 and held two managerial positions. (GTZ) GmbH is similar to IFAD in that it works to promote international development.
Courtesy: Twitter
Her plans for women can be summarized in an interview with UN News in which she is quoted, saying:
“Women are producers of nutrition, and there is a lot of potential. Women are not only victims: they also bear the changes and challenges of development; we in IFAD are trying to invest in the potential of women and not victimizing women. I can’t imagine any kind of development without women.”
It’s great to see women in power using their power to fight for other women.