Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2019 i National Geographic Magazine

My greatest strength is my ability to recognize blind spots, see and hear things that most ignore, and spot pathways beyond well-worn trails.Michele Norris Writer Page 10 My belief in what I cannot see or hear but in what I feel.Erika Larsen Photographer Page 29 I am tenacious. I am passion-ate about what I believe in. And I’m not afraid to fight for what I feel is right.Sarah Leen Director of Photography Page 34 I listen.Lynn Johnson Photographer Page 50 The ability to cross boundaries—social, physical, religious—to understand others. Also, knowing who I am and being true to myself.Rania Abouzeid Writer Pages 50, 82 My self-care. Weeks can go by where sacrifice is necessary but so is rest and love. There is no beauty or glory in suffering.Yagazie Emezi Photographer…

“BEING TREATED EQUITABLY, BASED ON ABILITY TO CONTRIBUTE, BASED ON SKILLS. BEING ACCEPTED AS EQUAL.” Q: What Is the Most Important Challenge That Women Face Today? MELINDA GATES SHE CO-FOUNDED THE BILL & MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION, WHICH SUPPORTS EFFORTS TO REDUCE INEQUALITY, POVERTY, AND OTHER GLOBAL ILLS. There isn’t a country on Earth where women have achieved true equality, and the barriers they face look different in different places. But no matter where you are in the world, understanding these barriers is the first step to dismantling them—and that requires making a concerted effort to gather better data about women and their lives. We don’t have reliable information about how many girls are going to school, how many women have the chance to earn an income, what their health and…

Elections amplify gains Rwanda’s post-conflict, 2003 Constitution calls for 30 percent of legislative seats to be reserved for women. Last year women won double the seats required by quota and now represent 61 percent of the legislature. Progress takes time Sweden’s parliament has almost reached gender parity with voluntary quotas introduced in the 1970s. Since then the number of women holding seats has risen from 14 to 47 percent. Quotas aren’t enough Countries with sanctions for failing to meet quotas, such as Costa Rica where candidate lists below the quota are rejected, tend to have more women leaders. The Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has no sanctions, has a 50 percent quota, yet women hold only 10 percent of seats. NOTE: IN BICAMERAL GOVERNMENTS, ONLY LOWER HOUSE DATA ARE…

“THERE WILL BE NO HEALTHY WOMEN ON A DEAD PLANET” Q: What Is the Most Important Change That Needs to Happen for Women in the Next 10 Years? DONNA STRICKLAND IN HER 20S SHE BEGAN WORK ON TECHNOLOGY THAT REVOLUTIONIZED THE USE OF LASERS—AND WON HER A SHARE OF THE 2018 NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSICS. TODAY SHE’S A PHYSICS PROFESSOR. What I would like to see is that, in the next 10 years, if we really have made it, we won’t even have to talk about it. I think that’s really the point that we want to get to. I am a little surprised at the big deal this has made, that I am the third woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physics; I had not even realized that…

WHEN I HEADED OFF TO COLLEGE, my mother gave me a piece of folded-up paper with a message she thought I would need. She wrote it longhand on a page torn from one of the little notebooks she kept by the phone. It said: No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. It’s a quote widely attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt, and it was a wonderful gift for a young woman setting off into the world. I wish I’d kept that tiny piece of paper. For a time it was in my wallet, and then, after it got frayed and kind of dingy, I put it inside a sparkly bobby pin and kept it in a dresser drawer with jewelry and keepsakes. After several years and several moves, I…

THE IMAGES IN AN ARCHIVE form an invaluable record of the eras in which they were made. Looking through early files to find photographs for these pages—and for our new book, Women: The National Geographic Image Collection—we were struck by how narrowly women were once defined. The pictures are often beautiful, sometimes funny or sad or even shocking—but they are reflective of the prejudices and practices of the times. The archive holds more than 60 million images amassed since National Geographic’s founding in 1888: published and unpublished photos, slides, negatives, glass plates, and more. It’s almost certainly one of the world’s most comprehensive visual records of women in diverse societies and cultures. In the early 20th century the magazine’s images—shaped by the technical limitations of photography then and a very…

Legal discrimination Ninety percent of the world’s countries have one or more laws that discriminate against women. In the past two years, however, 118 countries took steps to reduce legal discrimination. Discriminatory norms Nearly 87 percent of men in Pakistan believe it’s unacceptable for women to have a paid job. Disapproval exceeds 50 percent in Bangladesh, Yemen, Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan. Son bias Prenatal sex determination and selective abortion can result in more boys born than girls.…

“AFTER 9/11 I DELIVERED THE PRESIDENTIAL RADIO ADDRESS AND DESCRIBED WHAT WOMEN WERE FACING IN AFGHANISTAN. AMERICANS WERE SHOCKED & THANKED ME FOR SPEAKING OUT. I REALIZED I HAD A VOICE AND I NEEDED TO USE IT”. Q: What Was Your Breakthrough Moment? CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE THE AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF NOVELS AND ESSAYS IS ALSO ACCLAIMED FOR HER TED TALK “WE SHOULD ALL BE FEMINISTS” AND FOR RECEIVING A MACARTHUR FOUNDATION FELLOWSHIP. It was when I was nine years old, in the third grade, and I remember this very clearly. My teacher had said that the child with the best results on the test that she gave would be the prefect. So I got the best result—and then she said, “Oh, I forgot to mention, it has to be a…

1878-1968 1. LISE MEITNER THE PHYSICS OF FISSION Albert Einstein called the Austrian-born physicist “our Marie Curie,” even before her discovery that atomic nuclei can be split in half—a first step in the eventual creation of the atomic bomb. She and her assistant, nephew Otto Frisch, explained and named nuclear fission in 1939. But after prejudice against Jews kept her name from a key experimental paper, her former colleague, Otto Hahn, won the 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. 1879-UNKNOWN 2. VERA DANCHAKOFF STEM CELL PIONEER Eschewing her parents’ plans for a fine arts education, she was the first woman to become a professor in Russia. In 1916 she described stem cells—those with the potential to develop into many different types of cells in the body. In a 2001 keynote address…

Number of women in the U.S. military 19% vs. 18% OFFICERS The number of female commissioned officers is steadily climbing, surpassing the proportion of officers among males. 41% vs. 26% RACIAL MINORITIES Native Americans, Alaska natives, African-Americans, and other minorities comprise a large portion of enlisted women. 22% vs. 18% HISPANICS The proportion of Hispanic women who serve exceeds both the men’s share and the proportion of Hispanic women in the general U.S. population. 1,208 vs. 58,458 CASUALTIES Statistics for women among the dead and wounded in named operations began to be tracked in 2001. 5% vs. 17% INFANTRY Less than two years after all restrictions were lifted, some 600 women were serving in the Army’s newly opened ground combat positions, such as in field artillery. The number has since…

“NOT BEING AFRAID IS VERY IMPORTANT. YOU MAY FEEL LIKE YOU FAILED AND THERE’S NO WAY TO RECOVER, BUT YOU CAN”. Q: What Advice Would You Give Young Women Today? KRIS TOMPKINS FORMER CEO OF THE RETAILER PATAGONIA, TOMPKINS NOW FOCUSES ON THE SOUTH AMERICAN LAND PRESERVATION INITIATIVE SHE BEGAN WITH HER LATE HUSBAND, DOUG TOMPKINS. HER INITIATIVE IS A PARTNER OF THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY’S LAST WILD PLACES PROGRAM. So many women lack self-confidence. You have to jump 30 more hurdles than the guy next to you to get to the same place. You have to be calculating, you have to be checking all the signals in the room, you have to pick your space, pick your time to say something, to be something. Imagine the inherent exhaustion in…

LOOK FOR THE WORDS and portraits of impressive, insightful women in six colorful sections like this throughout the issue. You’ll see that we’ve posed the same questions to women from all walks of life. Some are notables from our new book WOMEN: The National Geographic Image Collection. Others are National Geographic Society scientists and explorers. Still others belong to Women of Impact, a 56,000-strong online community that National Geographic convened as a place to share women’s stories. Ponder the questions if you like, or make use of the answers. Welcome to the discussion. There’s more at on.natgeo.com/womenofimpact.…

“THE DISEASE TO PLEASE. IT HAPPENS WHEN WE ARE NOT RAISED TO KNOW OUR OWN VALUE & OUR OWN WORTH” Q: What Is the Greatest Hurdle You’ve Overcome? CHRISTINE LAGARDE SHE’S THE FIRST WOMAN TO HOLD THE FOLLOWING PRESTIGIOUS POSTS: CHAIR OF ONE OF THE WORLD’S LARGEST LAW FIRMS, MINISTER OF FINANCE IN HER NATIVE FRANCE, AND TWOTERM MANAGING DIRECTOR OF THE INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND. IN 2019 SHE WAS TAPPED TO DIRECT THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK. When I was just 16, my father passed away; that difficult time was one obstacle. And I think one obstacle is actually myself, you know. Over the course of time, the issue of confidence is one I had to struggle with. It’s probably closely related to the passing of my father and the sense…

“I HAVE SOMETHING to tell you.” I was ready to head home after giving a lecture about Inferior my book documenting the history of sexism in science and its repercussions today—when a soft-spoken woman approached me. She told me she was studying for a Ph.D. in computer science at a British university and was the only woman in her group. Her supervisor wouldn’t stop making sexist jokes. He never picked her for workshops or conferences. “Every interaction is awkward for me. I feel intimidated,” she said. “Most of the time I just find myself counting every minute.” Her plan was to see out the final years of her Ph.D., leave the university, and never look back. I’ve had hundreds of these fleeting encounters with women scientists and engineers, all over…

#BLACKLIVESMATTER CO-CREATOR “MY ABILITY TO IGNORE IT WHEN I GET NO FOR AN ANSWER.” Q: What Is Your Greatest Strength? OPRAH WINFREY THE WORLD-FAMOUS ENTERTAINER HAS AN EMPIRE OF PRINT, DIG - ITAL, AND BROADCAST MEDIA PROPERTIES. SHE BUILT AND OVERSEES A GIRLS SCHOOL IN SOUTH AFRICA, WHOSE STUDENTS CALL HER “MUM O.” No question, it’s connection to other people. You know, I’ve interviewed rapists and murderers and child molesters and all kinds of people who have done terrible things—but I can put myself in the space of where they are in that moment and meet them where they are. So my ability to connect to where you are in that moment—not to the thing that supposedly defines you—that’s one of my great strengths. I think that had I had…