![]() ![]() The ripple effect of the paucity visible female role models – past and present - impacts not just our beliefs about women’s ability to rise or to hold power today, but what we project for women in the future.ĭr Ansary, UN Women Global Champion, shared with me that raising the visibility of women in every sphere of endeavor is vital to empowering women and achieving gender parity. With statistics like this, it’s little wonder that our mental template for power is intrinsically masculine. It’s little wonder that when scientists Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier won the 2020 Nobel Prize in chemistry this week it made headlines. Of the 904 individuals awarded the Nobel Prize between 19, only 51 (less than 6%) were women (one of the many compelling statistics from Anonymous Is A Woman.) Indeed, as Dr Ansary points out in her book, women occupy only 0.5% of history books. And if you walk into the libraries of those universities, you’ll be searching hard for stories of women wielding power and making history. Of the world’s top 200 universities, only 34 (17%) were led by women in 2019. Dial up the spotlight on more women - past and present So as we celebrate International Day of the Girl this Sunday, here are six ways to harness and magnify the impact of role models to empower more young women (and maybe a few not-so-young) to defy the social norms, stereotypes and biases that have too long stifled the potential of half the world’s population. The disproportional impact of the COVID pandemic on women (participation in the US labor force by women aged 25 to 54 dropped to 74.2% in September) should be a siren call the world over. role models demonstrate the mindsets and behaviors of how to rise.role models inspire women to be more ambitious and aim higher.role models represent and expand what is possible.Research shows that role models have three core benefits for women: For instance, female students are more likely to choose a major in STEM (science, technology, engineering or math) when they are assigned a female professor instead of a male one. On the flipside, when girls can readily see women rising, on their terms, it spurs their ambitions. As research shows, not being able see other women who look and act like them succeeding in areas of interest to them – particularly in the field of STEM and politics like - discourages girls from pursuing such careers. Looking back, I sometimes wonder what different choices I might have made in my early adult years had I been in closer proximity to strong female role models. ![]()
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