Women’s News Round-Up, October 1: 5 Important Stories About Women
1. Alicia Machado Shines and Defines Herself
Venezuelan-born Alicia Machado is many things; an actress, business woman, model, singer, and activist. She won Miss Universe 1996 and started her own nonprofit, Mamis Solas, dedicated to single moms.
She is also one of many women who has been abused by Donald Trump. He insulted her after she won the 1996 Miss Universe with terms like, “Miss Piggy,” and “Miss Housekeeping.” Hillary Clinton mentioned this in the first 2016 Presidential Debate and afterward, Trump again insulted Machado in interviews and on social media. Cosmo shares that Alicia Machado
“…is determined not to be seen as just a victim, risen from the ashes of Trump’s destructive business dealings…Machado wants you to see her as a woman with her own talents, one who is not defined by victimization at the hands of one of the most controversial major party presidential candidates in American history. As she sees it, if the 2016 election has given her anything, it’s the opportunity to reclaim her past and rewrite her story in her own words.”
2. Emma Watson and Global Citizen Team up to Make Inspiring Short Film, Hurdles, About Gender Equality
In the film, Watson narrates, “There are many huge and high hurdles left to jump. The race is still on, every day of every year of our lives, but we will cross the finishing line.”
3. Physicist Dr. Hadiyah-Nicole Green Receives $1.1 Million Research Award to Develop her Laser-Activated Nano-Therapy Cancer Treatment
Green has had great success so far with trials of her laser-activated nano-therapy (LANT) cancer treatment. She was inspired to create an outpatient cancer treatment with minimal side effects after two close family members died of cancer. Green is one of the less than 100 female African American physicists the U.S. currently has. StyleBlueprint shares that during Green’s undergrad internship at NASA, she wondered,“If a satellite can tell whether a dime is face-up or face-down, then why can’t we treat cancer in a specific region of the body?”
4. Serena Williams Vows Not to Be Silent
Williams was struck by her own inner dialogue of worry when her younger (African American) nephew was driving her to a meeting and they drove past a cop car. Her mind flashed onto the story of Philando Castile, who was shot by police during a traffic stop (“that horrible video of the woman in the car when a cop shot her boyfriend”). Williams describes this experience and wonders about her previous silence in a Facebook post:
“…have I spoken up? I had to take a look at me. What about my nephews? What if I have a son and what about my daughters?
As Dr. Martin Luther King said, “There comes a time when silence is betrayal”.
I
Won’t
Be
Silent
Serena”
5. Dr. Carla Hayden Becomes U.S. Librarian of Congress, both the First Woman and First African American
Dr. Carla Hayden was sworn in as the new and 14th Librarian of Congress in September. Her career has spanned from working as a children’s librarian at the Chicago Public Library to being CEO of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore. NPR shares this quote from Hayden on libraries: “[t]he library now is even more of a sanctuary and even an opportunity center for so many people.”
*Extra News Flash*
Pediatric Cancer Patients Design Space Suit for Astronaut Kate Rubins
Kate Rubins is a cancer biologist and the Expedition 49 Flight Engineer and is currently living in space on the International Space Station. Pediatric cancer patients from the MD Anderson Cancer Center painted her a suit called COURAGE. Women You Should Know shares that Rubins told the kids, “[t]his project has meant a lot to me and really inspired me,” in a live Earth-to-Space call that can be viewed here.
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-Julia Travers is a writer and artist. Her writing portfolio is here and she runs the artist interview site Ask Artists.
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