Tag: women’s suffrage

An ode to two forgotten generations of Sri Lanka’s history makers

Post author By Amandi Fernando
Post date April 25, 2021

[Image description: Black and white photographs of Minnette de Silva, and the only available photograph of her mother, Agnes de Silva] via pulse.lk and architectural-review.com

I first heard about Minnette de Silva a couple of years ago.

She was a pioneering architect of Sri Lanka, forgotten long before her death. This appears to be the buzzword when it comes to Minnette – “forgotten”. It’s in the title, or at the very least, the first paragraph of every article about her published twenty years after her death.

She’s not the only person to be forgotten by the world, not the only woman, or Sri Lankan, she’s not even the only one to be forgotten in her own family. There are many people left out by “official” histories and public discourse. Minnette de Silva, and her mother, Agnes de Silva, are not the first.

Nor will they be the last.

What I find most unsettling about their stories, however, is that in wildly different ways, they each dedicated themselves to their country and achieved great things in its name. Yet, until very recently, I had never come across their names or achievements at school or in my daily life.

Agnes was a suffragette who fought for women’s right to vote in Sri Lanka, and she got it. She was instrumental in the foundation of the Women’s Franchise Union of Sri Lanka (then known as Ceylon), fighting for the rights of Indian Tamil women, and granting a franchise to women above thirty. Not that she stopped there, she went on to fight for Ceylon’s independence from British rule, which was achieved in 1948.

Minnette, based on her story, seems to have shared her mother’s drive and passion.

She was the first Asian woman to be appointed an associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects. She was the first representative of Asia in the International Congresses of Modern Architecture. She pioneered the modern architectural style of Sri Lanka (years before her contemporaries caught up). She made it a point to incorporate local crafts and styles into her work, giving local artisans employment and recognition in the modern age.

She was also the second woman in the world to open an independent architectural practice under her own name.

Her worldly social circle included Picasso, Homi Bhabha, Le Corbusier, David Lean, and Mulk Raj Anand. It paints a vibrant image of her early life that seems to only emphasize the tragedy of her much-talked-about lonely death.

What little there is to be known of both Minnette and Agnes has already been saying. There is some poetic irony about being remembered as a forgotten pioneer, but my takeaway from them both is that I should have known about them earlier.

Sri Lanka is in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the first female Prime Minister in the world – Sirimavo Bandaranaike. Her daughter Chandrika Kumaratunga was (briefly) Prime Minister before being appointed President of Sri Lanka, a role she held until the end of 2005.

In 2018, Sri Lanka reimposed a law that had for the most part been forgotten. The law makes it illegal for women to purchase alcohol from, or work at, a bottle shop.

As a country, we forget to remember the people who fought for it to be better, who returned home to establish themselves in Sri Lanka and let their home, and their people, benefit from their hard work and talent. It makes me wonder how much more both Agnes and Minnette could’ve achieved if they were appreciated, and celebrated by the country they clearly loved.

It also makes me wonder how many more Minnettes and Agneses there are out there that I didn’t learn about in the classroom. It’s time Sri Lanka showed more pride in the stories that can inspire their young women to follow in the footsteps of the women who came before them and paved the way.

In 2018, the World Bank concluded that 51.97% of the Sri Lankan population were women, more than half the island’s occupants.

What would my country look like if we heard more about the Minnettes and Agneses, and fewer justifications about why we shouldn’t be allowed in bottle shops?

We don’t have to turn elsewhere for role models or vehicles for our ambitions and dreams; they’ve been sitting right under our noses all along. Rubbing shoulders with Picasso and creating the architecture of the island as we know it, fighting for the rights we take for granted every day….and in sarees, no less.

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History Historical Badasses

Meet Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, one of Nigeria’s badass suffragettes

Post author By Simi Segun
Post date February 10, 2021

[Three pictures: one of Funmilayo standing with her arms crossed in front of her, a close-up shot of her in a graduation hat, and one of her staring ahead]

For stories of Black history and excellence, check out our Black History Month series. Celebrate with us by sharing your favorite articles on social media and uplifting the stories, lives, and work of Black people.

*Cue boxing announcer’s voice* In this corner, fighting against colonialism and the patriarchy, all the way from Abeokuta, Nigeria, give it up for Bere, the Lioness of Lisabi, women’s rights activist, Chief Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti!

You’re probably thinking that was pretty extra for an introduction. But trust me, this woman deserves it. Ransome-Kuti is often known for being the mother of the famous Afrobeats musician and activist, Fela Anikulakpo-Kuti. But as the first Nigerian woman to drive a car, a fierce educator and women’s rights activist, Fumilayo Ransome-Kuti is a legend in her own right.

Before (and after) becoming a mother, Ransome-Kuti achieved a lot. Born in Abeokuta as Frances Abigail Olufunmilayo Thomas in 1900, she was the daughter of a chief and dressmaker. Frances’ parents believed in the power of education, so she was one of the first girls to attend Abeokuta Grammar School. Afterwards, Frances attended Wincham Hall School for Girls, a finishing school in Chesire England. When she returned, she dropped both English names and began using her shortened Yoruba name, Funmilayo.

Now a name change probably seems pretty minor, but it was the first sign of her anticolonial stance.

[Image description: Shuri, a young woman, looking up and saying “Don’t scare me like that, colonizer!”] via GIPHY

Let me hit you with a bit of context real quick. During the year of Funmilayo’s birth, Abeokuta and its surrounding area formally entered Britain’s rule as the “Southern Nigeria Protectorate.” Here’s the thing: the transition to British governing systems had a big impact on gender dynamics. Before that, most Yoruba kingdoms had traditional forms of government, which included a system that had both men and women-led governing bodies. Once British rule started, those traditional forms ceased, taking with it political positions for women. The British sexist beliefs meant that women scarcely held government positions, and they brought these ideals to Abeokuta. Like Ransome-Kuti herself said during her work as a political activist, “We had equality before the British came.”

So there you have it. British rule began, and women’s leadership ended.

After her short stint in Britain, in 1925 Funmilayo married Isreal Oludotun Ransome-Kuti, a fellow educator (did somebody say #couplegoals?). They had four children: Dolupo, Olikoye, Fela, and Beko. Funmilayo quit her teaching job, but she didn’t become a stay-at-home mother. In 1932, she helped establish the Abeokuta Ladies’ Club (ALC). If you’re wondering if that’s as pretentious as it sounds, you’re correct! The club was mainly for Western-educated, middle-class women, and they mostly convened around sewing, motherhood, charity, and social etiquette. However, by the mid-1940s, after helping an illiterate friend learn to read, Funmilayo realized something:

“The true position of Nigerian women had to be judged from the women who carried babies on their back and farmed from sunrise to sunset, not women who used tea, sugar and flour for breakfast.”

As the ALC became more feminist and political, Funmilayo saw that the women’s movement could not succeed without the majority of women. So in 1944, the ALC changed its name to the Abeokuta Women’s Union (AWU), with Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti as its first president. Next up? A cultural glow-up. To make the union more inclusive, the union adopted Yoruba as the language of conversation and dressed in Yoruba attire.

One of the AWU’s first movements took things to the market. As a result of World War II, women were in a particularly precarious position. As a British colony, Nigeria also suffered economic consequences, and women suddenly found themselves having to contend with food quotas and price controls from the colonial administration and extortion from local authorities, who frequently confiscated their rice. So the women’s union took action, in an Instagram-live worthy showdown which Fela (her son), described, saying:

“These women went straight to see the District Officer of Abeokuta who was a young white boy. The District Officer must have said something in a disdainful voice, like: ’Go on back home.’ To which my mother exploded: ’You bastard, rude little rat…!’[–]Imagine insulting the highest motherfucking representative of the British imperial crown in Abeokuta, Ohhhhhhhh, man! I was proud.”

Mrs. Ransome-Kuti wasn’t here to play, thank you very much.

Another major accomplishment the AWU achieved under Ransome-Kuti’s presidency was in 1947, when they fought against sexist tax laws. The colonial government paid the Alake (traditional leader) of Abeokuta to enforce a tax that charged women more than men. Sadly for him, the AWU was having none of it.

In November 1947, Ransome-Kuti led thousands of women to the Alake’s palace, singing and dancing in protest. They demanded an end to the taxation, and also used petitions and letters to argue their case. Tensions continued to escalate until 1948, when the women’s efforts led to the suspension of the tax on women. Funmilayo’s efforts in the revolt earned her the nickname “Lioness of Lisabi”. The AWU’s efforts also led to the temporary abdication of the Alake in 1949.

After those successes, Funmilayo-Ransome Kuti continued to work with the AWU and even dabbled in national politics. She traveled nationally and internationally, spreading the word about women’s rights for years, until her untimely death in 1978.

Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti’s decision to include the market women in her movement is a strong reminder of the importance of an inclusive approach to gender equality: one that acknowledges intersectionality. By recognizing that progress could not be won through elitist means, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti inspired an entire generation to fight for a more equitable future.

In conclusion, we have no choice but to stan.

[Image description: Michelle Obama clapping] via GIPHY

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Tags women's rights, women, The Tempest, women's suffrage, history, colonialism, fight for women's rights, activist, The Tempest fellowships, The Tempest Media, write for the tempest, Gender equality, nigeria, nigerian women, The Tempest Studio, Simi Segun, yoruba, nigerian history, yoruba history, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, funmilayo ransome-kuti quotes, funmilayo ransome-kuti achievements, facts about funmilayo ransome-kuti, about funmilayo ransome-kuti, Abeokuta, Fela Kuti, women's history, women's rights activist, lioness of lisabi, anti-colonial, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti biography, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti real story, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti life, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti family, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti legacy, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti women's rights, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti feminist, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti books

Book Reviews Book Club Pop Culture Interviews

Witches are at the forefront of the Suffragette movement in Alix E. Harrow’s “The Once and Future Witches”

Post author By Yasmin Islam
Post date November 5, 2020

Why have regular activists when you can have activist witches? I found the perfect combination of the two in Alix E. Harrow’s new novel The Once and Future Witches.

We’ve all heard the witch tales told to us as little girls – the Wicked Witch of the West was a popular one in my childhood. She is so widely hated by people because of the inconvenience she causes Dorothy, but I secretly liked her better. She made the story. Why are we taught that the witches are always the villains of the story?

Author Alix E. Harrow recalls tales told in her childhood, “There are witches in so many of our stories,” she says in an exclusive interview with The Tempest, “creeping along the margins, waiting at crossroads and hexing babies; I guess it was only a matter of time before we started dragging them out into the light.” And drag to the light she did.

The Once and Future Witches is a novel that centers around injustices that, sadly, are still all too familiar to modern-day society, legal, economic, social and racial. The story is set in 1893, during the time of the suffragette movement, and did I mention that the main characters are activist witches?

Harrow admits that the idea wasn’t entirely hers: “I wish I could say it came to me in a dream, but the honest truth is that I was trying really hard to come up with a new novel idea, and my husband said, ‘you should do witches, but like, activists.'” And from there, The Once and Future Witches was born; a story combining the modern understanding of witchery with the age-old movement of the Suffragettes.

The protagonists of the book, the three Eastwood sisters, display a sense of morality that isn’t heard of from witches in the tales stemming from centuries ago; they are activists fighting for their rights as women. But can they balance witchery and activism?

There are so many characters that you come to love in this book; my favorite happens to be James Juniper, the youngest of all the Eastwood sisters, on a journey to leave her traumatic past behind. She also happens to be the most dedicated to her roots and a proud witch – something that is consistently frowned upon within the pages of this book and is a trait that makes her incredibly appealing in the new age of activism.

Juniper is the first to become involved with the women’s suffrage movement, later involving her sisters. However, the movement itself is not just for the rights of women, it also serves as a coverup for the Eastwood sisters’ own growing power throughout the city of New Salem; a force that reconciled the sisterhood of these three and brought forward a new sisterhood between the women of New Salem.

Agnes Amaranth is the middle sister and a solitary individual, and Alix Harrow’s favorite: “I had a newborn and a two-year-old while I was writing this book, and the idea of a character who found strength in motherhood, rather than sentimentality or weakness or softness is one that mattered a great deal to me.”

Last but certainly not least, we have Beatrice Belladonna, the eldest of the sisters and the insatiable bookworm of the trio. Beatrice is bursting at the seams for knowledge of her ancestors and finds herself digging deeper and deeper into her emotions and knowledge about witchcraft with the aid of her new friend. Beatrice’s love of books resonates with many readers and although on the surface Beatrice has less going on in her life than her sisters, it is truly a wonderful experience to watch such an introverted character bloom into a powerful presence.

My favorite thing about The Once and Future Witches happens to be how starkly different each of the Eastwood sisters are: there’s a part of everyone in each of these sisters, making them relatable to any reader. It is also quite refreshing to see the characters find pride in being women in a time where it was shunned.

But, throughout History, where there are women, there are injustices and at its very core, The Once and Future Witches is a story about all of these struggles whilst being a disliked member of society. As Harrow so wonderfully puts it, “All of us grew up on stories of wicked witches. The villages they cursed, the plagues they brewed. We need to show people what else we have to offer, give them better stories.”

Witchery is an essential part of history and literature. From the tales in the literary canon and children’s books to the ones in crime history and newspapers, it’s fair to say that witches haven’t always been depicted as the most just beings. The author of The Once and Future Witches dives deep into the set of fears surrounding the inversions of the natural order. Witches are often portrayed as promiscuous rather than chaste housewives; they prey on children rather than bear them and they curse houses rather than keep them. The nineteenth-century nailed in the gender roles of our society with witches being the feminine form of evil – but not the protagonists of this book.

The Eastwood sisters alongside many of the other characters find themselves facing an age-old battle that women appear to be destined to fight for the longevity of their time. “I wouldn’t necessarily want to declare that it’s some sort of grand allegory for the #MeToo movement, which involves real women in the real world.” Harrows says, “But all the injustices my characters deal with – legal, economic, social, racial, are absolutely still with us.”

Whether it’s an issue of classism or the economical stance of women in society, Harrow taps into our innermost subconscious, allowing us to see an age-old story with modern eyes in the best way; through the lives of witches. “I think the thing that fantasy can do better than any other genre is literalize experiences that are metaphorical – it can make the invisible suddenly visible. Women’s sociopolitical power is an invisible, uncertain quantity that shifts according to class, race, sexuality, ability, and identity. But with witchcraft–I could make it visible.”

The Once and Future Witches was a great read for me personally: though I’ve never villainized the witches, I’ve never thought to put them in the position of the heroes either. I was surprised just how much I connected with the main character James Juniper – her wit and charm as well as her pride had me rooting for her the entire way through. And although witches have never been traditionally written as humane, this was the most human I’ve read them to be and definitely the most I’ve connected with them.

This book is eloquently crafted and depicts the long-lasting journey that women have been on since the beginning of time and fills you with a sense of righteousness. Remnants of beautiful yet powerful messages are hidden in the charming words you’d come to expect from an Alix E. Harrow’s story. “With my first book (the take away) was a sense of wonder and nostalgia. With this one, it’s righteous anger, and the thing underneath righteous anger, which is almost always hope.”

We are hosting a giveaway of the book on our Instagram, stay tuned! Or, if you absolutely can’t wait to read “The Once and Future Witches”, get it now on The Tempest’s bookshop supporting local bookstores here or on Amazon here.

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Movies Pop Culture

Here’s why this feminist hates those Suffragette shirts

Post author By Shayan Farooq
Post date October 5, 2015
3 Comments on Here’s why this feminist hates those Suffragette shirts

If you’re a part of film or feminist circles on Twitter, you’re already familiar with the latest debacle in White Feminism™– those Suffragette cast shirts. You know the ones.

Yes, those shirts read “I’d rather be a rebel than a slave,” which is tone deaf as hell. However, a troubling number of people are defending the shirts, accusing those who are upset about them as being overly sensitive. So we whipped up this handy guide for those who are confused (or those who lack the time and patience to educate the shirt’s defenders).

[bctt tweet=”Yes, those shirts read “I’d rather be a rebel than a slave,” which is tone deaf as hell.”]

1. Yes, the quote is from Emmeline Pankhurst. That doesn’t make it any better.

The most widely touted defense over the shirts is that the quote in context of the shirts “isn’t really about slavery.” For reference, the full quote is “I’d rather be a rebel than a slave. I’d rather die than submit.” However, historically, the quote refers directly to slavery, with Pankhurst at one point asserting that women’s lack of the vote had “grown the most appalling slavery, compared with which negro slavery falls into insignificance.”

But you know who else would’ve rather been a rebel than a slave? Actual slaves.

Suffragettes were certainly important, but are also notorious for their exclusion of women of color. White women championing the vote were only fighting for themselves, believing their goals would be more palatable and easily understood without black and brown faces in the mix. By choosing a portion of Pankhurst’s quote that ignores the actual people of color, we obscure their struggles and further erase them from history.

There are SO MANY other quotes or phrases that could have been used on those shirts. Suffragette went with the most tone-deaf option.

2. Feminism is useless unless you engage with it as historical and intersectional.

There is a history of racism within feminism, and choosing to ignore that means putting the added struggles of being a woman and a person of color aside. I’ve written about Suffragette’s historical whitewashing before, and these shirts further enforce the film’s lack of racial/ethnic awareness. Ultimately, this benefits only white women. Contrary to popular opinion, the term “white feminism” does not mean “a feminist who is white.” It refers to a brand of feminism that only serves white women by refusing to recognize WoC.

Those who continually shout that it’s “just a quote” or “just a figure of speech” fail to understand that language and representation go deeper than what they’re simply “supposed” to be. Sure, “I’d rather be a rebel than a slave” might sound revolutionary and badass to a white woman, but to a Black woman, it is insulting and exclusionary.

3. If you are a white person defending the shirt…

It appears (in my Twitter circles, at least) that those defending the quote are white. The issue here is that it’s become white people policing what people of color are permitted to be offended or upset about.

WoC have perspective that white women do not. Because we are subjected to sexism and racism in conjunction, the sexism we face is different from white women’s (and even within WoC, the sexism differs based on your racial/ethnic group). If a WoC recognizes and calls you out on something, listen to us. Ultimately, we’re on the same team. Respect our perspective and concerns. Don’t silence us.

**4. No, they are not quoting Star Wars.**

This was my favorite contribution to the Twitter conversations surrounding the shirts. Most people were tongue-in-cheek about it, but some wonderfully naive Twitter users sincerely believe that the shirts were appropriating the Star Wars quote “I’d rather be a rebel than serve the Empire.” If only that were true.

Here’s to more PoC behind the scenes in the future to avoid other incidents such as these.

UP NEXT: Dear Suffragette movie, you whitewashed history

Tags Coming of Faith, liberal feminism, Shayan Farooq, The Tempest, women's suffrage, white feminism, Suffragette movie, offended at racism, offensive feminism, racism and sexism, Suffragette shirts

Movies Pop Culture

Dear white women, you weren’t the only ones fighting for voting rights

Post author By Shayan Farooq
Post date September 10, 2015
3 Comments on Dear white women, you weren’t the only ones fighting for voting rights

Oh, Suffragette. I want to like you. In fact, when I first heard about the film, I was downright ecstatic. Helena Bonham Carter, Carey Mulligan, and Meryl freaking Streep– three talented, capable women who would definitely kick ass in a surely feminist film. Those posters were enough to sell it.

The film is directed by Sarah Gavron, who is best known for directing Brick Lane (2008), a film about a Bangladeshi woman who moves to England after marriage. Gavron is reunited with Brick Lane screenwriter Abi Morgan, who also wrote screenplays for The Iron Lady and The Invisible Woman. Additionally, Morgan co-wrote Shame with director Steve McQueen (which is one of my favorite films).

[bctt tweet=”Those posters were enough to sell it.” username=”wearethetempest”]

A glance down the cast list on IMDb revealed that the only actors in the film are white, turning my hopefulness into crushing disappointment.

We’re already painfully aware that history is whitewashed, and Suffragette is falling into the same detrimental cycle. Despite what our history books may have taught us, there were suffragettes of color, they just weren’t given much attention.

This is Sophia Duleep Singh, the daughter of the last Maharaja of the Sikh Empire and a vocal suffragette in the UK. She held a leading role in the Women’s Tax Resistance League and participated in several other women’s rights groups such as the Women’s Social and Political Union.

[bctt tweet=”Nowhere in the film is there a South Asian face.” username=”wearethetempest”]

Singh’s father abdicated the Sikh Empire to the British, forcing Sophia and her family to move to the UK, where the daughters were made into Edwardian ladies, attending debutante balls and cotillions. However, Sophia secretly maintained contact with the leaders of the Indian nationalist movement, and is credited as one of the leading South Asian-British feminists.

In fact, here’s a whole slew of South Asian women in the UK participating in a massive march demanding equal voting rights.

The population of South Asians in the UK at the time was significant, and these women were just as active in the fight for equal voting rights. Nowhere in the film is there a South Asian face.

This is Ida B. Wells, an American sociologist and suffragette who took her frustrations with Americans to Europe, including two well-documented trips to the UK. Wells was successful in rallying the British against violent lynchings in the United States, pushing the U.S. government to secure protection for black Americans in the South, sparking this controversy around the same time British suffragettes were rallying for voting rights. Wells’ domineering presence in the U.K. at the time is a significant detail in the timeline of U.K. suffrage– completely omitted from the film.

[bctt tweet=”It poses a difficult feminist catch-22.” username=”wearethetempest”]

White suffragettes were certainly not intersectional, but that doesn’t mean that suffragettes of color didn’t exist. White women were granted the right to vote in 1920, but women of color didn’t get the vote until the late 1960s. As a Pakistani woman, this erasure of South Asian women from a film that is lauded as a feminist powerhouse is insulting. Including women of color is not optional. We are not a footnote in history.

Of course, this doesn’t mean white suffragettes are undeserving of our respect or of depiction in media. Suffragettes (regardless of race) were courageous and strong-willed, and made important strides towards equality that are entitled to recognition. But let us not forget– if it ain’t intersectional, it’s bullshit.

From a filmmaker’s perspective, this is lazy storytelling. It’s a historical drama– for the most part, we already know how the story will end. Why not make it more interesting by depicting conflict and characters that we don’t hear about as often? The filmmakers were perhaps wary of depicting these female heroes in any sort of negative light; an understandable concern, as female-led films are often used to gauge the success of all female-led films, so female filmmakers tend to tread lightly. Scrubbing history clean of the uglier parts, however, is not the proper way to handle it. Female characters are allowed to be complex. Female characters are allowed to be antiheroes. Female characters are allowed to be (and should be) multifaceted, rather than boxed into heroines, love interests, or villains.

[bctt tweet=”Female characters are allowed to be complex. Female characters are allowed to be antiheroes. “]

This somewhat dubious portrayal of a crucial moment in women’s history coupled with the film’s lukewarm reception makes me further disinterested in seeing it– but I still intend to. Suffragette is a film that is written, directed, and produced by women, something that is still (unfortunately) incredibly rare in the film industry. Even with box office sensations such as Mad Mad: Fury Road and Pitch Perfect that feature a largely-female cast and crew, women are still fighting to prove that they can pull an audience. It poses a difficult feminist catch-22; I only hope that some Hollywood executive greenlights a Sophia Duleep Singh biopic while we’re all discussing the feminism of Suffragette.

Tags Coming of Faith, Shayan Farooq, women of color, minority women, The Tempest, south asian women, women's suffrage, planned parenthood, disappointment, fight for independence, fight for women's rights, Suffragette movie, South Asian suffragettes, Sikh Empire

Tech Now + Beyond

Google, let’s stop discriminating in the workplace

Post author By Erum Jaffrey
Post date June 3, 2015
No Comments on Google, let’s stop discriminating in the workplace

Disclaimer: High level of sarcasm is intended.

Since the time of women’s suffrage (which, indeed, was a triumphant feat in American history for white women) women have unfortunately been on the back burner in terms of equality in the workplace. In 2013, a woman working full time, year-round in the U.S. earned 78 percent of a man’s earnings. That number rose a jaw-dropping one percent since 2012 — a significant change that will definitely help women all around the U.S. with their careers.

In recent news, Google stated that 21 percent of tech hires last year were women, boosting the overall number of women in technical roles by 1 percent, intended to increase diversity. This is yet another jaw-dropping 1 percent increase in efforts to really make women feel equal to their male counterparts. *snaps*

Not only are women affected by the exclusiveness of White men in the technology industry, but minorities are less inclined to be accepted into their tech “cliques” as well.

Google said that it has attempted to increase its Black and Hispanic employees. In reality, Blacks and Hispanics make up only 2 and 3 percent of Google’s total workforce of over 50,000.

So why are women paid less than men? Why do minority men and women make up such a small amount of the technology workforce?

Gender gaps. Sexism. Discrimination. Bias. Societal norms.

Women in the workforce nowadays have proven to receive the same education as men in the US, and have even surpassed men in educational achievement in other countries. There is no problem with female achievement.

The “problem” arises when women try to balance work and family, and women end up carrying nearly all of the caregiving responsibilities.

Much of the U.S. population still believes in establishing the woman as the “elite” caregiver in a family. News flash–they’re your children too, men.

When some employers view potential minority applicants, they may adhere to racial stereotypes and thus, refuse to hire applicants based on racial biases.

Ellen Pao, lawyer and Interim Chief Executive of Reddit , is an inspiring example of what a woman should try to do when experiencing sexism at work.

Pao is appealing her gender discrimination case against a Silicon Valley venture capital firm, Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield, and Byers after allegations of unwanted sexual advances, exclusion from all-male ski trips, uncomfortable conversations about pornography, and more.

The importance of her trial is the awareness it brings about widespread gender gaps in the tech industry. Women and minorities need to stand up for themselves and know what steps to take when facing discrimination from employers and potential employers (with no mercy). The early societal construct of what traditional men and women’s roles have evolved and should not be the basis for discrimination in the workplace.

Tags Coming of Faith, feminism, societal norms, diversity, women, Erum Jaffrey, US sexism, Caufield and Byers, discrimination, Ellen Pao, gender inequality, Google, Kleiner, Perkins, sarcasm, sexism, Silicon Valley, women's suffrage