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Inspiration December 16, 2016
Michelle Obama has spoken out about the overlooked members of society.
“Skin color, gender [are] the most ridiculous defining traits that we cling to,” she said after a Dec. 15 White House screening of “Hidden Figures.”
The First Lady commemorated what she called the “remarkable” and “important” film about the women who helped America become the first country to put a man on the moon.
“Hidden Figures” tells the inspirational story of Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe), the three brilliant African-American women who played a pivotal role in helping launch NASA’s first successful space mission.
READ MORE: ‘Hidden Figures’ Recognizes Black Women’s Contributions to NASA’s Space Race.
The movie highlights the racial and gender discrimination that these women faced. The First Lady points out that these same issues apply to the modern-day woman. Gaining access to opportunities requires force, courage and the willingness to believe that “you are worthy.”
“They didn’t listen to those doubters,” Obama said of Johnson, Vaughan and Jackson. “They did not listen to the haters because they’re always out there. They’re out there even today.”
In any field that is dominated by men, women’s accomplishments, contributions and talent are often hidden. And sometimes they’re even discouraged.
READ MORE: Women Sports Reporters Face Sexism in #MoreThanMean Tweets
Women in sports journalism, for example, experience a great deal of harassment and sexist comments for being in a “male” field. Often, women are critiqued more on their outfits and “hotness” instead of their credibility. In 2012, 90 percent of sports editors were male, according to the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport. And a 2016 study by Professor Suzanne Franks at City University London found that this statistic has barely improved in the past decade.
Similarly, although STEM fields are essential to America’s economic growth and competitiveness in the global market, men outnumber women by a ration of five to one. And a 2014 study published on the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed that both men and women were twice as likely to hire a man for a job that required math.
READ MORE: Emma Watson Promotes Women in STEM With ‘The Circle’ (VIDEO)
Unfortunately, lack of diversity is a problem throughout our daily lives. Whether a person is limited by his or her ethnicity, gender, sexuality or socioeconomic background, these restrictions are prominent in corporate boardrooms, schools across the world and even Hollywood.
Thus, increasing visibility of groundbreaking women is important to shift the current conversations about diversity. Talking about women – such as Meredith Viera, the first woman to host an Olympic sports coverage in 2014, Katherine Johnson, a revolutionary NASA mathematician and Sonequa Martin-Green, the first African-American woman to land a major role in the “Star Trek” franchise – is important.
READ MORE: ‘Star Trek’ May Cast First African-American Leading Lady, Sonequa Martin-Green
“As you move forward in life and we get access to these seats of power, these tables of power. I want you to look around and make sure there’s diversity at the table,” Michelle Obama said in her speech.
“You don’t come up with the right answer if everyone at the table looks the same and thinks the same and has the same experience – you never come up with the best answer. So when you get these seats at these tables of power, your obligation is to make sure the conversation is diverse.”
With the visibility, the hope is that young women across the nation and the world will be encouraged to dream bigger.
A photo posted by Hidden Figures (@hiddenfiguresmovie) on
When women are given access to equal opportunities and education, as Michelle Obama has written for CNN, it “doesn’t just transform their life prospects – it transforms the prospects of their families, communities and nations as well.”
