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Throughout the previous decades, women have made immense progress. Yet, these accomplishments often go unnoticed. The impact women have had on society and continue to have on history is absolutely mind-blowing. Since the beginning of time, women have been struggling for equal rights and privileges as men and have made tremendous progress. Some might say the work is not done yet and society as a whole still needs to adjust its mindset to see women as equal, but the least we can do is appreciate the accomplishments women have made throughout time.
As early as 1903, despite the popularly believed stereotypes that men were naturally smarter and women were meant to stay at home and take care of their kids, Marie Curie became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for her work in radioactivity, ultimately showing the world what she is capable of. More examples of women following their passion and displaying their abilities occur later on. For instance, in 1983 “Sally Ride became the first American woman in space,” proving women are capable of stem related research, topics, or experiments just as much as men (Smithsonian Magazine).
A couple decades later in 1920, women fought for their suffrage and ultimately achieved their goal through the establishment of the 19th amendment. Elizabeth Cady Stanton constantly rallied for her rights and gathered enough support to convince the government to permit women’s suffrage which is a major step in the right direction for gender equality. In the mid-half of the 20th century, women began to take on similar duties as men, increasing chances of equality. For example, in 1942, women served in the armed forces. Although they started off performing small tasks such as “radio operators, mechanics, and laboratory technicians,” a couple decades later, Congress took action to assimilate women into the structure of the army (Smithsonian Magazine).
Starting in 1932, women began to challenge the stereotypes and wide held beliefs by following their passion. For example, Amelia Earhart flew solo across the Atlantic without any assistance. This accomplishment was huge because it was an example that women were finally able to follow their passion and prove what they were capable of rather than living in the shadow of men. According to Smithsonian Magazine, Earhart became the first woman to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross proving that gender has nothing to do with capability.
Women began to gather more political accomplishments as time went on which is a huge part of achieving gender equality because politics determines authority and men have sustained authority over women for such a long period of time. However, in 2007, “Nancy Pelosi became the first female speaker of the House of Representatives” to challenge that belief (Smithsonian Magazine). Recently in 2020, Kamala Harris became the first female Vice President of the United States, continuing the progress women have achieved in the sense of political freedom.
In conclusion, women have reached a significant amount of accomplishments in the past decades or centuries and are continuing to follow their passion and work hard to make change in the world, but gender inequality still exists. People need to be aware of the female accomplishments and the abilities of women to begin to understand gender inequality and the solution for it, which in this scenario is to develop a more open minded mindset.
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