Shirley Chisholm: The First African Amerian Woman to be on a Ballot for President

In an article written by Linda Lowen, Shirley Chisholm, the first African American woman to ever run for president, is honored. Several of her accomplishments throughout her political life include being the first African American woman elected to Congress (1968), the first African American woman to seek a major party nomination for President of the United States (1972), first woman to have her name placed in nomination for President at the Democratic National Convention, and the first African American to be on the ballot as a candidate for President. Chisholm's slogan that got her elected into Congress was "unbought and unbossed."

Chisholm, from the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, NY, she originally pursued a professional career in early childhood education and child care. Then switching to politics, she served four years in the New York State Assembly. This was before she made a name for herself as the first black woman to be elected to Congress.

Shirley Chisholm, a woman with character and perseverance, who made a difference. She paved the rocky road for all women who want to take their career in a political direction.

Serena Williams: Top Career Prize Money Winner in Women's Sports

Serena, who many know as an amazing tennis player, athlete and person, has officially become the top career prize money winner in women's sports. Williams advanced to the finals of the Australian Open on January 28, 2009. She and her sister, Venus, reached the doubles final. By then her winnings reached $22,753,575. That figure surpassed the old record of $22,573,192 held by LPGA player Annika Sorenstam. With the Williams sisters winning the women's doubles on January 30 and Serena the Australian Open on January 31, her career earnings reached $23.5 million.

Williams talks about how her career started. She won a prize of $250 at Quebec City, Canada in 1995 at the young age of fourteen. She has not won the most prizes and titles in women's tennis, he major wins have topped that. Being such a determined and motivated woman, makes Serena a role model for me and I am sure for many other female athletes. She proved that striving for what you really want will pay off in the end.

Pink Taxi

The Pink Taxi has become official in Mexico. After Moscow and Dubai established this system of taxis for women, Mexico quickly fallen suit. A fleet of thirty-five pink taxi cabs roam the streets in Moscow, Dubai and now Mexico catering to women only. These pink taxis, driven by women, of course, also come equipped with beauty kits that are meant to offer ladies just the solution they’re looking for. This includes a ride from point A to point B and some time alone to redo their makeup and not having to deal with male drivers heckling them during the process. The privately financed Pink Taxi de Puebla invested over $440,000 to start the service, and the Puebla state government provided licensing and training for the company and its drivers. If the program succeeds, officials plan to expand it to other cities.

Many women who have used the services provided to them say it is a fantastic idea and how much they love the idea. "Women’s rights activists, though, are not as convinced that this is a good idea, especially since, aside from promoting positive discrimination, it also implies that all that women are about is makeup and an obsession for all things beauty. Instead of preventing discrimination, as Pink Taxi claims, the fleet of pink vehicles actually works towards encouraging it by enforcing stereotypes that women have been struggling with for years, critics say." Activists feel as though the obnoxious driver and discrimination towards women should be tackled in a completely different manner.

I personally think that this is a great and extremely safe way to allow women to feel more comfortable, especially if they are alone in a taxi cab.

www.lilith-ezine.com/articles/.../Pink-Taxis-in-Moscow.html

Gorgon, Elana. "Mexico Promotes Beauty, Fights Discrimination with Pink Taxi." Www.news.softpedia.com. Life & Style, 22 Oct. 2009. Web. 6 Nov. 2009. .

Toilets Before Marriage

An article I discovered online, posted by the Washington Post, caught my attention rather quickly. In Nilokheri, India women are refusing to marry unless their husband-to-be has furnished their soon to be home with a bathroom. This way, women are free of embarrassment. They would otherwise have to squat in fields or any other place they could find outside, and if they are lucky,community toilets. It is known that about 665 million people in India, which happens to be just around half of the population, do not have access to toilets. A campaign that started to get more toilets installed called "No Toilet, No Bride" has been very successful. The campaign, which started about two tears ago, has helped more than 1.4 million toilets be built in northern state of Haryana. Some of them built with government funds, according to the state's health department. Women's rights activists call the campaign a revolution as it spreads across the country in hundreds on rural towns.

Indian girls are traditionally seen as a financial liabilities because of the wedding dowries, which is often times one's life's savings of their fathers. The money, property, land or goods are often given to the groom's family. But that is slowly changing as women marry later and grow more financially self-reliant. More rural girls are enrolled in school than ever before.

Men in the villages and towns are taking the women seriously. They know that they will never find a bride if they do not make something of themselves in order to afford a toilet. India;s rapid urbanization has encourages many of these thoughts and actions.

Survey Shows that Women in the Workforce See Their Physical Appearance as Very Important

Reading through articles, I came across one that talked about how women themselves took a survey asking them if they thought their appearance was important to their job. The survey was conducted among female professionals, senior managers and business owners of PINK Magazine, a publication for career women, and Corset Personal Styling, a personal shopping company for women.

The results showed that nearly all U.S. working women believe that their professional appearance is crucial to success at work. One in five of these female executives say, according to the survey, that they have withheld a promotion or a raise due to the way an employee dresses Wulfhorst, 1). Only 2% of the women polled believed that they way they dress or have dressed in the past, has affected their careers in some way (Wulfhorst, 1). Fifty-five percent of these women said that they feel that they do not have anything to wear that would be appropriate so they wear the same things over and over again. Others say that they continue to buy things that look similar to things that they already have. Almost half of the women said that they feel they wear too much black.

I feel as though the survey that was given to these women shows what women really do feel about they way they dress in the workplace. Appearance is important, but it should not be everything. Someone should be picked to have a raise or be promoted because of the skills or knowledge they have. Believe it or not, it is discrimination when someone is picked for a job because of the way they are dressed rather than because they are qualified. There could be someone else who is a lot more qualified for the job than they are even though they may not have "good fashion sense."

Wulfhorst, Ellen. "U.S. working women see appearance as key: survey." Www.reuters.com. Ed. Michelle Nichols and Xavier Briand. Thompson Reuters Corporate, 14 Oct. 2009. Web. 23 Oct. 2009. .

Reflection

With all of the research that I have been doing to prepare and write my papers I have thought a lot about my topic, my opinion about what I have been talking about and discussing and other people's views on the subject. My most recent paper discusses how and why women are underpaid in the field that they work in. Because women are paid significantly less than their male counter parts, women's families suffer because their pay check is too low to support an entire family. My paper discusses and addresses other people's opinions on why women get paid less than men and attempt to explain their reasons. They try to prove that women work less hours, take longer leaves of absence, and may not get the job done. This is completely someones opinion and should no be considered facts at all. These opinions are simply excuses.

Because I am a working woman who holds a job where there are other workers who are men, I am interested in this topic and have my own opinion. I believe that if a woman was hired to so the same job as a man, then that woman should be paid equally. Discrimination against either sex is wrong especially when it comes to the wages of men and women in the work force.

Women's Rights in Ancient Egypt

From an article that I had found online about ancient Egyptian women, I learned more than I had thought I would. In my past journals, I have been researching and commenting on different types of women's rights. I have talked about women in Afghanistan and how they have been treated for quite some time, but the article that I found seemed very empowering towards women. In ancient Egypt, women’s rights reached a level that has rarely been seen in the modern world. This was unusual in the ancient world and many neighbouring states looked down upon them for this. Rather than being seen as the weaker sex, women were often portrayed as being just as capable of violence and power as men. Queens were shown executing their enemies, torturing prisoners and slinging arrows at male opponents in battle. Even non-royal women have been shown stabbing male enemy soldiers. The women went to the market and took part in trading while the men were depicted as sitting at home weaving. This seems extremely strange to me and I'm sure many others.
In recent blogs posts, I have talked about how women have been mistreated, looked down upon and or given no rights. This article grabbed my attention because it discussed the complete opposite. It was refreshing and enlightening to read an article where the women discussed were powerful and in control.