You might have seen our recent social media post sharing the ‘Brilliance Bias' artwork by Caroline
Criado Perez, a humorous but stern cartoon about leaving brilliant women out of our worldview. Sad but true, we are generally invisible. If you don’t think that’s true, pick up a copy of ‘INVISIBLE WOMEN’: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed For Men” by Caroline Criado Perez. I’d add that our world is designed ‘by men, for men’, but I think we generally already get it. It’s been a man’s world for far too long.
But what to do about it? Can we really make our world more inclusive? More equal? You bet! Oh, there’s so much going on to equalize our two sexes but when it comes to equality, we simply must acknowledge that those scales have been tipped toward men and against women. It’s time to bring women in and guess what, even men are on board.
Did you know The United Nations has created a ‘HeforShe’ campaign (started in 2014) that invites men (world and large corporate leaders) to join forces to acknowledge our amazing contributions without which our world would be a much different place?
Did you know women played a major role in winning WWII because, behind the scenes (as was sadly normal), besides all the other marvelous tasks we undertook, we also handled code breaking so that our fighters could know what military plans our enemies were making? Men got the credit and yes, it was earned, but we were right there, lots of us, deciphering messages that affected the outcome. If you want to know more, read ‘The Woman Who Smashed Codes’ about Elizabeth Smith Freidman, by Jason Fagone.
Did you know the U.S. Post Office has a stamp labeled WOMEN CRYPTOLOGISTS OF WORLD WAR II. Feel free to buy lots because it’s so important to acknowledge.
Of course we already know about those amazing women in the movie ‘Hidden Figures’ and the critical role they played in spite of outright discrimination against them. Truly ‘wonder women! There’s information coming out from all over about true geniuses who were ‘women and hidden’. Can you feel our world balancing -- tipping toward equality? Expect more to come. Now it’s time to take on our English language which is highly masculine. Did you know there are no real words for women that don’t include man words?
Coming soon (we hope), a new book by yours truly titled, ‘Breaking the Bias of English’. If you’re on our e-mail list, you’ve been receiving content that will be in that book, we hope, by summer with lots more detail. Think English isn’t a man’s language? You might think differently after reading our posts and that book!
Can we change the world by changing a few words of English? Stay tuned, because YES WE CAN!
*For more information on how we’re changing English to include words for women, go to wenglishforwequality.com.