Women And Extraordinary Women: June 2014

Monday, June 16, 2014

We were out on Saturday to see a wolf-preserve nearby. It was a very chilly day and none of us were dressed appropriately for the occasion. So, I jokingly got between my husband and our friend who happened to be a guy. He asked me if I always thought men as creatures who are there to protect women. Not sure why he asked that as now and then he says lots of things without meaning them (it seems). But, in case he was serious, here is my answer to him: read the cartoon HERE or copy/paste http://www.upworthy.com/my-favorite-cartoonist-smashes-a-sexist-fairy-tale-trope-in-one-hilarious-swoop?c=ufb2

Pink Lego For Girls...

A very nice article HERE. If the link does not work, copy and paste it in a browser: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jakewallissimons/100210036/pink-lego-is-an-abomination-end-this-gender-fascism/

The article is about pink legos for girls, and how it only contains mommies, daddies, fashion items and cuddly toys. Such sexism is not only dangerous for girls/women but more also dangerous for boys/men. How it can be dangerous for men? Well, if little boys see these things on TV and on store-shells and if he is brought up with the idea that women are sex-objects and are there only for sex and do all his house-work, then reality will hit him hard when he goes out for dates/marriages. In the twenty-first century, it will be very hard for him to find like-minded and educated women (unless of course he is interested to have as his wife a dumb, illiterate person) who will confer to his stereotypical ideas about women.

My Profile

My parents are originally from India and I spent quite a bit of time there where still today women are third class citizens in rural villages and small towns. They are being constantly sexually assaulted in streets, roads, trains and buses and I also painfully experienced those much. I loved math and science and always wanted to be an astronaut. However, while growing up, I was constantly told and reminded that such fields are not for girls/women as they do not have the brain or the mental capacity to succeed in those fields. After moving to the US as a teenager-kid, I saw such prejudices exist even here. Not only that, but situations seem to be worse here with women being brainwashed that they need to groom themselves all the time to look beautiful so that they get good husbands or rich husbands!! At first I refused to believe it. However, my female students also told me the same thing that girls in school get into fashion and ignore math and science fields so that they come out as beautiful and not nerdy and get good dates!!! Such ideas are also seemed to be enforced by TV, magazines and newspapers where only news about Kim Kardashia or such celebrity reality stars and models are published. But there are thousands and millions of extraordinary women out there who are great achievers in various fields but at the same time loving daughter, mother, sister and wife. Where are the stories of those women? How come their news are never published? Who will I follow as my mentors? I have a PhD now in Mathematics, and do research in Mathematics and Computational Science. I am also a professor. Where will I find the role models so that my daughters, sisters and other women students can follow? So, this blog is trying to capture the stories of such extraordinary women. Now and then I will try to give in my opinions also :-).