Karly, a student at Harvard, shared this illuminating thread about how our world was not built for women. She lists many disturbing examples of how the word is hostile to women. It’s things we take for granted like smartphones, cars, drug dosages, and many more:
Source: Karly
(via: Bored Panda)
There is a book that addresses this idea, it’s titled “Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men” by Caroline Criado Perez. The book is available in English print, audio, and digital, as well as many other languages.
And it is a really good book, too. Well written and so therefore, as a woman, really infuriating at the world at times. Highly recommend!
Fun facts: Women have been able to vote since 1920, the first female CEO was in 1972, Madam CJ Walker was the first female millionaire, there are more women in the world then men specifically in first world countries. The only one holding woman back is woman. If you see a problem, develop a solution. Women are directors, actresses and business owners so feel free to stop working for men and do your own thing, nothing but air and opportunity and an identified quantifiable customer base. A woman could have invented the car, a woman could have invented weights, women can literally make the solutions to everything in this article, I’m not going to sit here and simp and downplay women’s abilities not am I gonna relinquish their accountability especially over the last 50 years.
I’m a woman and the office I work in is too hot.
I like it 60°F…
theSometimes it’s difficult to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, not because you are averse to it, but because it can be hard to imagine everything they have to deal with. This is why I’m grateful for posts and articles that bring a perspective other than my own, so I can see the world more accurately. And, as a writer, it helps me be more accurate when portraying people who aren’t me.
And it makes you think about history. For years, there was (still is) a push to bring female scientists into the limelight. And honestly, how many can you name without mentioning Marie Curie? Do you know of any BEFORE her? And how much do you actually know about her? Did you know she was the first person to win 2 Nobel Prizes?
It’s pretty bad when we go back and realize that the guy who is getting all the fame for something was likely doing it for his wife who was the real brains behind everything going on. Or when we start to question whether or not someone in history was actually a man or if they were a woman posing as a man because that’s the only way anyone would listen/give her respect/pay her/etc. Think back on all those authors who had to use initials (or pseudonyms) to hide their gender—but don’t think too far back; JK Rowling (her views on transgender aside, she is quite the philanthropist) didn’t use her full name because she didn’t think boys would read a book written by a woman.
Scientists and authors aside, there are SO MANY roles dominated by men in history for no good reason. There were many amazing women artists that aren’t known because they are women, not because they weren’t brilliant.
Music is the one that gets me. There were many women composers… but I couldn’t mention one until I started looking into it! Did you know Mozart had an older sister? And that Maria Anna Mozart was not ALLOWED to advance as a musician or composer because she was a woman? In correspondences with her brother, we’ve learned that she composed music anyway (and would earn his praise)… but NONE of her works have survived. WTF?!
Though I’d add that the world isn’t built for traditionally feminine roles. As a stay-at-home dad, I can’t begin to tell you how frustrating it is to walk into a men’s room and find no changing table (or the changing table in an absolutely terrible place). Or to be kept out of play groups because I’m a dad. I know when someone is judging me because my wife is the one earning the money and I’m at home with the kids. Further, many boys don’t take dance lessons that they want to take simply because that’s a “girly” thing and they are already succumbing to peer pressure. My brother and I are the only men I know that can cross stitch. Men aren’t supposed to show emotions… that’s not manly. But honestly, we have got to break these stupid stereotypes and figure out that these roles are for both men and women.
Things designed for the army were designed for men until recently? Well, since, until relatively recently, only men served in combat roles, this makes perfect sense. Why design something for someone who isn’t using the product?
And offices being air conditioned for the comfort of men? The alternative is to keep the temperature higher and have men sweating and uncomfortable in their suits. Women being comfortable would mean men cannot dress professionally.
In many countries women were able to vote before 1920. In the UK women were banned from voting in parliamentary elections between 1832 and 1918, though one was added to the electoral roll by mistake and thus was able to vote in 1867.
As for running businesses, women had being doing that since the middle ages. A local (to me) example is Hannah Lees. Her husband died in the early 1800s leaving her with four young children and an iron works. She expanded the business and it became known as Hannah Lees and Sons. One of her descendants provided money for the school I went to, so one of the houses was called Lees.