Women's Achievements

Mrs. Kingsbury’s lecture was on the achievements of women across the globe. We watched a video which included information about leaders who have been women. When people were asked how many women leaders there have been in history, most answered between 2-10. It was much to my surprise as well, that there have been 50. We talked about past achievements of women inventors who invented things like the medical syringe, refrigerators, and rotary engines. Then there are the women in Hidden Figures who were crucial people in launching the first shuttle into orbit. Some of these things are necessities and the it would be so different without these things in history.

Before this class I had seen the documentary “Miss Representation” and was appalled at the way media portrays women. It was Geena Davis who said “if she can see it, she can be it”. On one side this quote could be very motivational for young girls. They could see hard working, educated women making a change, or doing something they love. On the other side, if a young girl saw the way women are portrayed in video games like Grand Theft Auto, or Resident Evil, music videos, or any other platform of media and they said they wanted to be like the women in those instances, that would not have a great response. In video games, music videos, and on the tv you can blatantly see that women are objectified and depicted as sexual objects. They wear minimal clothes and it’s all about what they look like, and wear. This isn't the way we want to see women when we look back on our generation.

The big idea I got from her lecture was that over the past couple centuries women have made a good impact on history. Their achievements have been important and well recognized but there is still a lot of progress that needs to be made in society.