We’re looking for Contributors!
It’s Women’s History Month, and we’re looking for you! Do you have a list of female heroes you feel don’t get their proper shout-out? Do you see places where things are starting to improve in some way, or where things could be improved with a little nudge? We want your input. If you’d like to tell the world about the Heroic Women who inspire you, register a free account right here at Eve Is My Hero and use the Contact Form to send us a message. We’ll have you up and posting in no time!
Women Innovating: Marion Donovan
One of my favorite blogs is called Gizmodo, a tech blog that goes above and beyond to highlight important innovations in technology. Most of the time, that means it’s focused on fairly new tech, but once in awhile they hit on something older.
Today they have an interesting piece highlighting the clever thinking of Marion Donovan, to whom most any parent owes a significant debt of gratitude. Why, you ask? 70 years ago, tired of the constant work of keeping two not-yet-potty-trained daughters clean and dry, she decided to try and develop something to make her, and eventually others’, lives a lot easier: the plastic-lined, nylon-backed diaper and, later, the disposable diaper. I’m tempted to simply pilfer their research and tell the tale, but In good conscience I’ll just say why not go take a quick read for yourself!
In Fiction: Batgirl, Batwoman Become Priorities
Source: IGN.
I haven’t spent much time looking at heroic women in fiction (outside of Eve herself, of course) since we launched Eve Is My Hero, so perhaps this is a fitting introduction.
In the world of comics (to say nothing of movies, television, etc) men have always dominated heroic roles while women stayed largely on the sidelines. There’ve been exceptions, of course, and more than once there have been characters such as Batgirl, Supergirl and so on, but they’ve rarely been priority characters, nor particularly breakout kinds of characters. As a rule, they tend to play second-fiddle to their male counterparts.
Things are apparently about to change. This coming fall, DC Comics will revamp their entire comics lineup, taking all their character books back to Issue #1 status, effectively “resetting” the world. As the new world begins, some of the major changes taking effect include the new prioritization of female characters, beginning with Batgirl and the all new Batwoman, who packs a surprise or two of her own.
PtGC: eWeek Highlights 10 Women in Major Roles
Source. A nice montage has been posted over at eWeek, highlighting ten women who are currently in very important, high level roles within the technology industry. This is an industry near and…well, near to me, in that I worked in the field for close to 15 years before deciding to go back to school to start over. Though it’s still a place dominated primarily by male employees, what I personally saw over my years in the field is that a good, capable tech person–programmer, systems engineer, network administrator, tech support and so on–was well regarded and well paid, regardless of gender (though I’ve no doubt that female workers were still paid less on average than their male counterparts, to be sure).
In any case, it’s good to see women in these roles succeeding; like with the women in the Film and Television industry posted earlier this month, each of these makes a small but measurable, worthwhile difference in redefining the role of women in the professions, and demonstrate with clarity that gender is by no means a limiter of intelligence and competence.
No English? No problem!
If you’d like to show someone who doesn’t read English some of the amazing accomplishments of the Heroic Women we highlight here, have we got an update for you. If you look to the right of this post (go ahead–I’ll wait) you’ll find a little box in the sidebar, with the heading “Translate!” Guess what it does? That’s right, it translates the whole darn site, using the pretty-darn-good tools offered for free by Google’s Translation API. It’s not perfect, but hey, sometimes you just need to get a little closer to a native tongue, and this might make the difference you need! Let us know if it helps you!
PtGC: Liz Manne, Executive Director of Film Aid Int’l
Source. It wouldn’t be an understatement to say that so far, Women’s History Month has been pretty kind to women and pretty aggressive in its push against the glass ceiling. And as we continue moving forward in the month, it looks like there’s no letting up yet, and we’ve got a doozy of a Noteworthy Happening today.
Liz Manne, who co-founded Fine Line Pictures and worked as Executive Vice President of Marketing from 1990 to 1997, has now been named Executive Director of Film Aid International, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
If you’re not familiar with Film Aid (I only learned of them recently,) they’re an organization that puts together and shows educational films to people in less developed parts of the world in an effort to elevate education levels on basic human life topics. From their website:
“FilmAid has completed a 5 part film series on hygiene and the prevention of malaria and cholera produced for the Somali refugee community. The films are being watched by thousands of Somalis living in Dadaab refugee camp where health is consistently compromised by overpopulation.”
Now, you might think “eh, so what? I saw those kinds of films in grade school.” Fair enough. But for people who live in parts of the world where education is unavailable or undervalued (or goodness forbid, both,) many people can go their entire lives without the basic understanding of simple human hygienics, much less higher needs like Liberty, Self-Respect, Reason and Science. Without foundational knowledge, it’s difficult to convince people of the need for higher knowledge, and it’s precisely this lack of education and development that lead to situations in which they can be abused and taken advantage of by unscrupulous individuals, governments and corporations who know better.
So congratulations to Ms. Manne, who’s clearly a motivated “go-getter” not just in the realm of business, but in the realm of ideas that work to elevate humankind to a better way of living.
PtGC: Ann Boyd at Sony Pictures
Source. Whew, it’s been a busy week for the Glass Ceiling! Following a string of woman executive promotions at Fox and ABC networks, Sony Pictures Entertainment has announced that executive Ann Boyd has been promoted to Sr. Vice President of Global Communications.
According to her boss, Jim Kennedy, “Ann’s a real rising star here at Sony,” said Kennedy. “She’s creative, collegial and smart. She knows business, entertainment, technology and the importance of helping the media get what they need accurately and fast.”
As with the executive promotions at Fox and ABC, I see this as important because it marks a shift in high level corporate culture–a place traditionally dominated by men exclusively. When women are able to work their way into these positions and find success, they very fact of their presence in a highly respected and important role affects a cultural shift that begins locally and expands outward like ripples in a pond after you’ve dropped a stone in.
Taken one at a time they can seem insignificant, but in the age where information about these kinds of happenings travels far and wide via the internet, seeing more of these occurring helps convey the message that women are capable of holding positions of significant responsibility, capability and pay. Over time their presence becomes a simple fact of life and ceases to be a “threat” to their male counterparts–this is the essence of cultural change. As a further benefit, seeing women achieve in these ways is inspirational to the young, who, particularly in more strictly traditional families, may not have many strong female role models (strong in the modern, independent sense–even women in traditional roles demonstrate a kind of strength, which I don’t want to completely discount).
Can you hear that sound? It’s like…glass…cracking!
Site News: Performance, Facebook & Disqus!
We’re happy to announce that we’ve made some substantial changes to the “back end” of Eve is My Hero today, resulting in some substantial performance improvements. You’ve probably noticed the sluggishness of the site recently, and today I finally had time to do something about it.
Additionally, I’ve also performed the upgrade to our Facebook page. I hope you’ll join us over there, Like us and begin to share the word about the site as we drive forward with our mission to highlight the many courageous and heroic women who make positive changes to the world we live in and overcome gender stereotypes to do so.
Last but not least, we’ve added support for the worldwide standard Disqus commenting system to the site. That’s right, if you’ve got Disqus account, you can just sign in to the commenting system with that and comment away on Eve Is My Hero, no need to register a local account!
Heroic Women in Fiction: Buffy
Whatever else Eve is my Hero aims to be, a “deals blog” it is not. Nevertheless, seeing this Amazon Deal today reminded me of one of my first and most favorite fictional female heroes, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Right now the complete series, 7 seasons of amazing storytelling and character development, is on sale for only $69. I paid around $50 per season, and consider myself to have gotten a bargain. At this price it’s very nearly theft.
So what is it that makes Buffy so incredible? First, it’s about subverting tropes of all sorts. Buffy herself is the typical little cheerleader you’d expect to be the “Damsel in distress,” waiting for some well-heeled jock to come save her–but instead of being that, she’s the hero of the whole damn story. She’s smart, sassy, strong (literally–she’ll kick the crap out of said jock if he messes with her), a natural leader, and the quintessential, classical “hero” in the sense that she always ends up doing what’s right.
But she’s also very grounded, in spite of the fantastical world in which she lives. She copes with the same pains we all do–relationships that turn sour unexpectedly, friendships that don’t always align well, conflict with family, illness, money troubles and so on, and she deals with these within the framework of metaphors that align with the real life versions of problems we all face. She does all this believably, growing from the innocent and hopeful girl to the tough adult and leader of an army she eventually becomes.
If you’re a lover of heroic tales of any kind, Buffy is for you. And the good news is, it has enough humor, fun, action and drama to appeal to just about any audience.
Pushing the Glass Ceiling: Brooke Bowman at ABC
Source. In another noteworthy move this week, ABC Executive Brooke Bowman has managed to work her way up to Senior Vice President of original programming and development at ABC Family, the Hollywood Reporter…reports. Coming hot on the heels of Fox’s promotion of two other women in its own infrastructure, this is welcome and positive news that highlights progress being made in the upper echelons of corporate America.
In her new role, Ms. Bowman will oversee production of both original movies and original television series’ being produced at ABC, a role whose influence is sure to be substantial.
Following up my previous posting on the Fox promotions, I’ve decided it’s a bit “wafflish” to not directly include women who achieve in business as “heroic.” As I mentioned before, some will disagree with the designation, preferring to reserve it solely for activist types, or writers or speakers, but upon reflection I’ve decided that view is a little short sighted, and that my previous hesitation in just outright declaring the heroism of these women in business was unwarranted. There are many flavors of heroes and heroism in this world, and the woman who manages to succeed against the odds in what’s traditionally been viewed as “man’s territory” has absolutely earned the designation of hero. To get to her position, she’s had to work twice as hard as many of the men she’s worked with, and been twice as competent in order to earn not just their respect, but their admiration and trust. That she’s moved to this level is nothing less than evidence that she’s earned that trust, and as more women rise into these ranks and succeed, they can’t help but change attitudes and perceptions of both men and women along the way.