Chocolate soufflé and other challenges of my life …

On Sunday, I decided to enjoy my day with a chocolate soufflé and to try a recipe I found online. In the mean time, I was listening to news…

Since it is March, it is all about international Women’s day. Some are talking about its history and some are big supporters for equality. At the end, I know deep inside that very littel actions will be taken this year and very little will change for women, especially for women in poverty.

With all these emotions, I moved on with my soufflé. I added eggs, cacoa powder, milk and sugar into one pot.

International Women’s day have been celebrated in many countries around the world. Since I know myself, I have been hearing the same words “to celebrate” — I dont know what we celebrate considering equality between men and women will not be seen in my lifetime , World Economic Forum says that gender equality is still 99 years away — and same promises to improve the inequality. It is on news; politicians and important businessman/women tell how much they care about and how they are investing for diversity and equality. I don’t believe them anymore.

Then I placed dark choclotte into a glass container on boiling water, and mixed them to melt with butter. While melting, I thought of myself and unequal moments of my life. When I am pessimistic, I wonder how my life would be if I were a boy. I would not be called “emotional” and I would have definitely been welcomed with a different treatment at work, at Engineering/science training... I would not be judged for my decisions in my personal life … Where is this equality people are talking about? I mixed and mixed the cake vigorously! Then I added my anger and frustration into it to melt chocolate. As a scientist, I know odds are against me. The equal pay is a known issue but the main problem is the growth opportunity. If you can not catch the next growth opportunity, it will have a significant influence to your career. The key is always to catch the role with promotion; you will be ready for some of the challenges due to your past experiences while you need to grow into this role for the parts you are not prepared to. I believe this is the part that generates the main difference in the pay rate in time. The book “Why women do not ask?” by Linda Babcock gives multiple examples for this growth limitations influences women’s career or I should say , statistically it influences women more. My dark thoughts made me bitter and bitter.

As a feminist I know, inequality is not acceptable and rough to live with. Gender equality is a human right and freedom is in my soul, it is in my bones, it is my character.

The baked (bottom one) and raw chocolate soufle (top one) that I made while writing this story.

Finally I added the melted chocolate to the cake blend and poured into ceramic cups to bake at 350 F for 12 min. After that I got one spoonfull bite and for a second the world stopped. I felt the beauty of my life and decided not to focus on dark. As the soft melted chocolate flavor spreads in my mouth, I believe my dopamine and serotonin levels hits the highest it had been for months and with that positivity, I decided to #ChooseToChallenge for International Women’s Day 2021.

This year, I will help to more girls for science and engineering education, and will attend for more higher education talks for high school and elementary school kids to hear their concerns and to motivate them. I’ll donate books to public schools. Inequality will not go away if you are educated, but you will have more choices in life if you are an educated women. And finally, this year I’ll write on feminism and equality struggles to challenge my audience to think where they do unconscious bias decisions.

International Women’s day is the time to understand and recognize the path we are walking on had been shuffled by many others before and there is still a long way to walk until equality. The inequality I am living with as an international woman in USA is not specific to my sex, religion or any other sub group we generated in our society. Many of us are experiencing that one way or the other. Discrimination, or favoring a person over the other one for a feature of its identity, is damaging our society more than we understand and I’m against to all versions of it.

So, let me challenge you: What actions will you take in 2021 to over come the equality problem in your society to help people who are less fortunate than you are?

“You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that end, each of us must work for his own improvement and, at the same time, share a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful.” — Madam Curie The first female Noble Price winner, The First female to win two Noble prices, She won one in Physics and one in Chemistry.