The importance of having female role models.
Role models are important in every stage and every aspect of our lives, and they are not only for children. We are currently evolving and striving to become the best version of ourselves we can become, right? That is why having female role models that inspire me to become exactly that is something that, as a female myself, concerns me a lot.
What do you mean by “role model”?
The term “role model” was coined by sociologist Robert K. Merton to describe the ways that people model sets of behaviors, values and attitudes they admire in others.
By the way, there seems to be research affirming that women rely on and benefit from same-gender role models more than men do. I find that really interesting, although I haven’t formed myself an opinion about it yet. To know more about the research check these sources:
- Penelope Lockwood. 2006. “‘Someone Like Me Can Be Successful’: Do College Students Need Same-Gender Role Models?”
- Lucia Nixon and Michael Robinson. 1999. “The Educational Attainment of Young Women: Role Model Effects of Female High School Faculty.”
Shaping my role models
I studied Philosophy, and while I think over half of my school is made up by women students (half of them drop out mid career anyway hahaha), the whole career is definitely male driven. You only have to take a look at the curricula and you’ll see what I mean. Most, if not all, of the philosophers we studied were male. Still I had the honour to be taught by amazing female teachers that were highly respected in my university. I admired them and looked up to them, and while I was journeying in that field of study they became my role models.
I'd like to point out that there has been a number of important female philosophers throughout history, of course, I just meant that their work is not shared, researched and taught with the same emphasis and relevancy as some equally important male philosophers.
To clarify, I don’t want to make this post about the weight that women have historically had or not in a study field such as Philosophy, nor about the gender inequality that evidently still surrounds almost every aspect of life, including the academic field, but about the importance of role models in my own personal life.
I’ve asked myself… what are the shared characteristics of my female role models? (I also have many male role models, by the way) They are all strong women, they all have overcame difficulty in their lives in an admirable way, they are all very talented at what they do, they have all made an impact in their respective fields, they have all moved me in any way or another, they have inspired me to achieve my goals and to set out the kind of person I would like to become.
There’s a number of things I fantasised being when I was a child (like being an astronaut hahaha) and that I think I might have pursued a little stronger if I had the right information and the right role models at the time. Honestly, when I was 10 I just didn’t think there was possible for me to be an astronaut, mostly because I just never heard of a female astronaut before… And yeah, here’s the deal: there is definitely a problem of misinformation.
Actually, talking to my mum about the subject, she tells me she’s never had a role model, not even a real life role model, which really surprises me.
The issue of misinformation
The years went by and my professional and academic interests took a different direction, and I found myself working as a teacher assistant at a school.
One day, I was talking to some students about an upcoming Science project they had going on, in which they had to do a presentation about an important figure in the field that inspired them to know more about science and two things caught my attention:
Number one, they all chose someone who is widely known inside and out of the Sciences, and one could even say was made visible in the non-scientific field by pop culture. And number two: they all chose a male figure. Now, I’m not in the field of science, but I knew a couple female scientists whose work and life I personally admired (such as Marie Curie, Ada Lovelace…)and I was just a bit disappointed about the lack of interest that my students showed to , on one hand, go beyond the “mainstream” lists of famous scientists that have changed the world and, on the other hand, the fact that not even one of the girls had chosen a female role model to do their presentation on.
So many questions stirred up my head.
Why didn't they care at all to find a female figure to look up to? Could it be because they didn’t think a female figure could be relevant in an apparently all male driven field of study? Or because they just didn’t know that there were actually a wide range of female scientists to choose as inspiration? Why weren’t they concerned at all about the subject? Did they have any female role models? Were their female role models rightfully showing them all that they can become?
On another note…
A year or so ago, a friend started a hashtag that made it to the trending list on Twitter (Venezuela) The tag was #AdoptaUnCivil (“Adopt a civilian”) and to make the long story short (because it has to do with politics and I don’t want to get into that) his idea was this: In a country that idolises and worships the militia for… well, just for being part of the militia and wearing an uniform, civilian figures should be highlighted and made relevant. So he called for people to do research on a civilian figure of Venezuela, known or pretty much unknown, that made an impact in any field and should be remembered.
This was a very interesting learning experience and I think you can still see some people tweeting about it. It was a chance to highlight, research and learn about people that have made an impact in our world even though they are not "famous" and also to realise that you don't have to be famous or universally known to made an impact or to be someone else's role model.
This takes me to the point of this whole post thing.
I’ve been thinking about all of this and decided to create new content section on my blog about notable women in science, music, literature and engineering, and probably any other field that I come across. Women that have made an impact in our history and the history of knowledge, but we don’t know about it because their work has not been considered relevant or interesting enough to be widely known outside of their respective fields… amongst other reasons.
I got the idea by a deck cards I got to play with my students once, so I thought I’d research about a notable women in different fields and develop a bit about them on each chapter. These are meant to be short chapters you can easily read, sort of like browsing through a catalog, and it’d be interesting if you guys knew some about the characters and you could add up interesting facts about these women’s life on the comment section below.
So, yeah. That’s it. I hope it doesn’t fall into the “Things I want to write about on Steemit but never have the time to actually sit down and start writing” neverending list haha
What’s your opinion on this subject? Do you think having role models plays a part on our learning experience? Did you have any role models as a child that you think helped shape the person you are now? What are your role models as an adult?
Let me know in the comments below!
Thanks for reading.
Mis mas grandes modelos a seguir son mi mama y mi abuela, mi mama es titiritera y abogada, compositora infantil, es un alma joven hoy y siempre.
Mi abuela es aun mas joven que mi mama, te dejo aqui un post que le hizo la comunidad de ruta blockchain, espero que disfrutes asi como yo me la disfruto siempre, besos.
https://steemit.com/blog/@rutablockchain/ruterosespecialesconromeliaagero-998rnoijoh
Qué lindas tus palabras. ¡Y qué genial que tengas una abuela tan talentosa, interesante y con tan destacada trayectoria en nuestro país! Disfruté de leer esa publicación. Un abrazo.
Hi @lilixblack such a wonderful post. I do think role-models are important. We shouldn't depend on them to run our lives but to give us inspiration and support. When you think back that it wasn't all that long ago women were not allowed to vote in the US. How many years, how many women pushed for this one issue?
How many countries still struggle with basic gender roles? When the world is inspired by a child who wants to learn, that proves we need build up good role-models.
The only 'role-model' I had was from a movie that had a great impact on me as 'pre-teen' was Gandhi. I know kind of odd for a girl to have a male role model. He philosophy had a great impact on me at such an impressionable age. I lived in what was considered at the time a well-to-do area, even though my family was not. This movie and learning about his life changed my thinking. I still live by his words "Be the change you want to see in the world.
I actually don't think it's odd to have male role models when being a girl, I actually have some very important male role models. I think that anyone that makes a positive impact in your life, that inspires you to be a better persona and achieve your goals is a good role model, regardless of their gender. But there is still a long way to get the same recognition, awareness and relevancy (in some fields) that men get. Thank you very much for your comment!
You're absolutely right. I know as I have grown and gotten older. I admire people like Maya Angelou and a few others (sorry I just woke up the brain is not in full function) Those that have taught us to be true to ourselves. To believe in ourselves and stop at nothing to reach our goals and dreams.
I believe we need to honor them more. They are true of spirit and of life. They make us think. They make us dream. Most of all have shown regardless of the obstacles placed in our way we can overcome them.