History of Women Blog

  I picked Sydney Freeman because she is a talented filmmaker and transgender women such as herself deserve to be recognized for their achievements.                -Brianna Quintero      Sydney Freeland is a transgender Navajo filmmaker and director. Her most popular work is a movie called “Drunktown’s Finest” which is a story about three Native American people who live on a reservation. The name of the movie is a reference to an offensive ABC News segment that deemed Gallup, New Mexico as “Drunk Town, USA.” She has directed single episodes of popular shows such as The Wilds , Rutherford Falls, Grey's Anatomy , P-Valley , Nancy Drew , and Fear the Walking Dead . Sydney also directed the digital series Her Story , which received an Emmy nomination. Her goal is to get rid of the racist stereotypes that have plagued Indigenous peoples and add more representation to the LGBTQ community in the media. I chose Freeland ...

I picked her because I think it is interesting that she used her art to tell stories          -Dana Pivin Soufeina Hamed is a half German half Tunisian comic artist. She is working on her master’s thesis in the field of intercultural Psychology and started drawing ever since she could remember. Before deciding on comic art, she tried out oil painting, manga, realistic sketches, and more. Her comics are about the everyday life of Muslims in the Western world. “Comics like any other medium are a perfect way to express an opinion and to show issues in different perspectives. With comics, you can make difficult topics simple and easy to understand. That’s why you can reach a wide audience, which is especially useful when you try to change common opinions, misconceptions, or prejudices. 

She inspires me to look at the world realistically but also positively.         -Emma Shea Cleo Wade is one of the most influential poets of our time and started out on Instagram saying her musings and feelings. Her poets spreading equality and love have truly touched our souls and she has even been called “The Oprah of Millenials” and “The poet of her generation”. She has written many beautiful books such as “Heart Talk: Poetic Wisdom for a Better Life” and “What the Road Said”. “We are our commitments. If you are committed to misery, you will always find it. If you are committed to joy, you will always find it. If you are committed to learning, then everywhere you look, you’ll find something new to learn. If you are committed to staying put then everywhere you look you’ll find… the same old shit.” - Cleo Wade.

     I chose Lobna Helal because she was the first women to be appointed as Deputy Governor of Egypt's Central Bank          -Katarina Sanchez Lobna Helal, According to Forbes Middle East , is the second most powerful Arab businesswoman, and the first ever woman appointed as Deputy Governor of Egypt's Central Bank.  In 2004, she joined the central bank of Egypt to execute a full-fledged, two-phased banking sector reform program till 2011.  She soon became appointed deputy governor, and was responsible for monetary stability, “Monetary stability means a lengthy period of stable prices and market confidence in the external value of currency” (tutor2u.net), making her the first female to behold this position in the history of the Central Bank of Egypt.  Helal was also chosen to be a part of the top 50 most influential women of the Egyptian economy in 2016 and 2017.  

  I chose Selena because my family talks about her a lot           -Katarina Sanchez Selena Quintanilla-Pérez was an American singer, model, businesswoman, songwriter, and actress.  She is sometimes known as “The Mexican Madonna”, and was named “Queen of Tejano music”.  Her most major accomplishment was winning the Grammy lifetime achievement award.  She paved the way for other Latina women in the music industry that was male-dominated.  Sadly, on March 31rst, 1995, she was killed by the founder of her fan club, Yolanda Saldívar.

I picked Condoleezza rice because she is a very influential and inspiring woman           -Calli Burkhart      Condoleezza Rice was born in 1954 in Birmingham, Alabama, so she grew up with segregation and racism. In 1974 she got her bachelor's in political science from The University of Denver, then in 1975, she got her master's from Notre Dame and then a PH.D. from the University of Denver in 1981. The same year she became a political science professor at Stanford University. In 1993 she became a provost at Stanford University, making her the first black woman to hold that title. In the 1980’s she worked in international affairs and became the director of Soviet and East European affairs with the National Security Council, and special assistant to President George W. Bush during the dissolution of the Soviet Union and German reunification. Then, in 1997 she worked on the Federal Advisory Committee on Gender-Integrated Training in the Militar...

   I chose her because she proves that you don’t need a male by your side to succeed            -Eden Burnett      Michelle Bachelet was born on September 29, 1951. In 1974 after her father died of a heart attack,  Bachelet who was a medical student at the University of Chile at the time was arrested (along with her mother) and sent to a secret prison, where she also was tortured. Released into exile in 1975, Bachelet lived in Australia before moving to East Germany, where she became active in socialist politics and studied at the Humboldt University of Berlin. In 1979 she returned to Chile and subsequently completed her medical degree. She was the first female president of Chile and the first popularly elected South American female president whose political career was established independently of her husband. She was elected in 2006 and served a 4-year term and was then re-elected in 2014 for another 4-year term.

I chose Whitney Houston because I have heard a lot of her songs and liked them                      -Katarina Sanchez Whitney Houston  Whitney Houston was an American singer and actress, who is most known for her legendary single, I Will Always Love You .  She is one of the best-selling recording artists of all time, with sales over 200 million records worldwide.  From 1985-1995, the singer had 11 number one hit songs.  She was born August 9th, 1963, in Newark, New Jersey.  Her cousin and mother were both legendary figures in American gospel.  Whitney started singing at a young age at New Hope Baptist Church and shocked the audience with her talent. When Whitney was 15, she performed often, in an attempt to get a record deal of her own.  Around the same time, a photographer discovered her and was awed by her natural beauty.  Soon after she became a sought-after teen model, being on...

I picked Ellen Ochoa to write about because I really admire astronauts and the effort they put into their jobs. It's impressive all the things she has done and I aspire to be like her one day               -Brianna Quintero Ellen Ochoa is a veteran astronaut who was JSC's first Hispanic director and its second female director. Her other management roles were Deputy Center Director and Director of Flight Crew Operations. She joined NASA in 1988 in Ames Research Center as a research engineer, but she moved to Johnson Space Center in 1990 because she was selected as an astronaut. When she served on the nine-day STS-56 mission on the Discovery shuttle, she became the first Hispanic woman to go to space. Including her STS-56 mission, Ellen Ochoa has flown in space four times, logging over 1,000 hours in orbit on missions.              Ochoa’s higher education includes earning a bachelor's degree in ph...