First Women Stories

Guess what, women can do science too! And they can write about it, and pretty damn well. Gaia Vince isn’t just a science writer, she’s an explorer too, having traveled the world to interview people and tell their stories, weaving their narrative around scientific facts and information. Her book is on my To Read List - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Adventures-Anthropocene-Journey-Heart-Planet/dp/0701187344

Gaia Vince is the first woman to win the prize as a sole author in its 28-year history, impressing the judges by quitting her job to travel the world to collect evidence for her book .  Her book explores the most pressing ecological issues facing the planet, and the people who are using science to solve them. 

Woah, go Australia! They’ve put a woman in charge of tanks and guns. Marise Payne asked that she be judged on her performance and not her gender. Luckily, men can’t multitask so they can’t judge her on her gender AND her appearance. 

More here http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-22/first-female-defence-minister-marise-payne-asks-to-be-judged-on/6794862

‘Globally influential force’ in architecture, Zaha Hadid was the first women to win the Royal Gold Medal from the Royal British Institute of Architects. Being not only a woman, but an OUTSPOKEN one is an obvious disadvantage, as Zaha is said to be the ‘female John McEnroe’. 

Congratulations to Zaha, and here’s hoping she inspires lots of young women to be noisy architects. 

Cause, like up till now those big bad cruise ships were much too difficult for a mere woman to steer. I mean, she’d break her fingernails or snag her dress, right?

“Kate McCue's dream to command her own vessel began at the age of 12 when she took her first family cruise to the Bahamas. She said when she told her dad that she wanted to be a cruise director, he gave her the response that would change her life.

"He said, 'You can do anything you want in the world, including drive this thing,'" she said.”

But after the celebration, something else struck me.  How the hell can it be 2015 and we are STILL regularly celebrating women’s firsts. I thought the same thing a few days previously, when I read about the first female umpire at the US men’s open final. And I tweeted about it.

I googled ‘first woman’ news stories and found a whole range of stories from the past few weeks. We aren’t talking about the 1950s here, but 2015. How can there still be so many firsts for women?