What We’re Reading: Celebrating International Women’s Day
Hi everybody,
Long before Beyoncé became a country star, she wrote a song called “(Who) Run the World? Girls.” Released in 2011, it exploded beyond the radio and became the kind of song you might hear this weekend if you attend any number of breakfasts, brunches, or awards dinners in celebration of International Women’s Day.
Writers across Medium are using the occasion to highlight the power and triumph of women.
- Aradhana Khowala, the chair of Red Sea Global, argues that men ought to step up for women this IWD: “Overcome your fear of saying and doing the wrong thing. The more you do and say as a champion for women, the more you learn to do and say things better. This is not a ‘zero-sum game.’”
- The UK’s official Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) highlights three women in science, including Angela Ashgill, who 3-D envisions and hand-sews blankets to protect space satellites.
- The CEO of Panorama, Gabrielle Fitzgerald, asks us to consider a world where fewer leaders are named John.
- Scot Butwell reviews a book detailing the history of an American women’s National Football League.
Gender equality is a hot button issue on every continent. If you write about it, please let me know. Medium is all about dialogue. How do you personally move the conversation forward?
Thanks for reading and writing,
Adrienne Gibbs, Director of Content @ Medium
What We’re Reading
Diving into Cybersecurity Management — Part One
Published by Katlyn Gallo in Dark Roast Security
Early on, there were days I would sit at my desk and think “I don’t know what the heck I’m doing” or “I suck at this”. In those moments, I would take a breath and remind myself I wouldn’t have been given this opportunity if my leaders didn’t think I could do it. And so I’d push through the negative thoughts and self-doubt and just try to make it through the day. And then the next and the next.
Diversity Theater: Unmasking Tech’s Hollow DEI Commitments
Published by Neela in Code Like A Girl
Yet for every Instagram post celebrating female STEM grads or group selfie of smiling interns from underrepresented backgrounds, the net impact feels more like an annual diversity performance than a legitimate upheaval of the status quo.
I’m Going “Mansober” for March
Published by Dana DuBois in Age of Empathy
Listening to Woodard share her story made me ache for young women and fear for my teens, perched on the cusp of entering this whole dating mess. But it also made me awestruck by the power of her Boysober movement. These women have never known any other ways to date, so they’re just opting out in favor of their own self-care and passions.
- Teaching teens how to identify and fight back against gaslighting is the topic of Robin Stern, PhD’s latest piece. Dr. Stern, who is also the co-founder and Associate Director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, interviews a high school senior who says this: “My friends and I push the boundaries — we all want more independence and power to make decisions. This is often when I have seen gaslighting come in. Gaslighting happens in a power dynamic in which one person (our parent!) asserts their dominance — and, we teens can find ourselves either the gaslightee or gaslighter.”
- If you need some respite from being gaslit, perhaps try your hand at a Lego garden? Brick aficionado Attila Vágó goes deep in this review of the latest Botanical collection. “The plants are where the parts’ usage gets really interesting, though. Purple butterflies, red shells and horns and green mining caps are just the beginning. Pink epaulettes, light-green safari hats and brooms, dark-red brushes and even cogs are used to achieve some pretty impressive brick-built plant designs.”
Today’s Final Word goes to Osi I., publishing in Fourth Wave about civil rights icon Claudette Colvin, whose name is often overshadowed by Rosa Parks. Nine months prior to the well known Montgomery Bus Boycott, Colvin refused to give her bus seat to a white passenger, and the 15-year-old was beaten and arrested for it.
“Her name was Claudette Colvin. The day was March 2, 1955. School had let out early and she and a couple of friends had hopped on the segregated Montgomery, Alabama public bus system to head home. As usual, when white people boarded, the Black passengers at the front of the bus had to move to the rear, or stand.
A young white woman got on the bus and Colvin and her friends, who were seated in a row, were told to move to the back and stand so that she could sit….”
Colvin didn’t move.
Read the rest of the story here.
