When I read the article “Women in Science: The denied
Nobel Prize of Lise Meitner”, there was a line that really called my attention
and I couldn’t avoid reflecting on one idea and then, comparing it with another
situation portrayed in the popular American movie, Mona Lisa Smile.
Thinking of the fact that some time ago, educational
opportunities were reduced to provide an encouragement to women to become a
good wife and mother, it’s deplorable. I’m not pretending to play the role as
the women’s defender here --I swear-- it’s just that I believe that we, as a
society, don’t have anything to feel proud of with this particular issue in our
history, don’t you think?
I’ve always believed in the equality of rights for men
and women in all aspects and I do believe one must fight for something when the
adversity is our enemy, ignoring any kind of prejudice or criticism. From this
point, based on Lise Meitner’s case, a woman who decided that the study of physics
would be her way in life, when women were not
admitted to Universities --I think she must have believed in the same idea.
The same must have happened with Katherine Watson (performed
by Julia Roberts in the movie), a teacher of Art History at Wellesley College,
whose ideals of women’s role in society at that point were controversial, given
the fact that she refused the idea of marriage as the only objective in every
woman’s life.
Regarding both examples, from Science to Arts, we
could conclude that these are two truly fearless women, do you agree?
I agree with you. I think that women have had a very important role in science throughout history. Obviously, we all know that men have been essential in science, and in technology, but we have to accept that women have helped them or have contributed in medicine, philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, art, and so on and so forth. Even though women have been excluded from the scientific world, they have managed this issue properly as Lise Meitner did it. She showed to everyone that science was not exclusively from men’s world. The thing is to demonstrate that both men and women are capable of contributing and participating in this fields.
ReplyDeleteOf course, Sergio. Just think of great geniouses like Frida Khalo (I'm an admirer), great exposer of the surrealism and symbol of the overcoming of life's difficulties; Gabriela mistral, chilean icon of womanhood, sensitiveness and wisdom, who in my opinion has influenced many other feminime artists; Nadia Comaneci, fantastic athlete and winner of numeruous gold prizes...
ReplyDeleteMany examples to tell, and I'm not even mentioning scientific female names.
I strongly agree with you, women had been fighting for having their own space in society for such a long time and that mission needs courage (and guts!). In spite the two stories that you presented are supposed to be old story, they had been replied in the XXI Century because even when we assume we are so evolve, the world has not change that much. A few years ago, the first Chilean female President was elected, and many people believed she wasn’t good enough since she was a woman with lots of hormones flowing around her. Is such a pity that we have to prove we are capable of doing certain “men activities,” but I guess that the fact of face the adversity, make women more powerful than those who think that have the control.
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