should women rule the world?

[WyattDerp]

Hildegard von Bingen was Da Vinci-like in her accomplishments and diversity of interests. She wrote the first book of medicine. (Apothecary style, discussing the medical properties of herbs - not leeches and vapors). She was also a cutting edge composer.

One of the most powerful pirates of all time was Madam Ching, who commanded 80,000 pirates and 1800 ships.

Marie Curie is the only person who has ever won Nobel prizes in two different sciences.

Never even heard of any of these people in school.

Oh thanks, I never heard about Madam Ching, and this is the coolest thing I ever read haha:

Undefeated, she would become one of China and Asia's strongest pirates, and one of world history's most powerful pirates. She was also one of the few pirate captains to retire from piracy. [..] She ended her career in 1810, accepting an amnesty offer from the Chinese government. She kept her loot, married her lieutenant and adoptive son Cheung Po Tsai, and opened a gambling house. She died in 1844, at the age of 69.

Just wow, gg... very well played.


I saw this yesterday, and while I found it a bit over the top music and narration wise, I would overall recommend it (if only for the middle bit about early and modern Islam which raises such a good point).

[youtube]bJvU3i5Ditw[/youtube]
The War of the Word | BBC Documentary | Women and Religion - YouTube

And needless to say, I never heard about any of those women in school either.

Then there is Hypatia, whom I learned about by some people having a cat named after he: Hypatia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Oh, and then there is the inventor of the compiler, I learned about her via a talk from Crockford; but neither in school nor on the interwebs before that:

Grace Hopper - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

*swoons* ^^

 

[Mercy Not Sacrifice]

Yeah, one example is Henrietta Leavitt. She may not have been a woman in power, but she made significant contributions to science that actually allowed us to calculate distances to galaxies that we couldnt before. It was even considered to nominate her for the nobel prize... unfortunately, she had died 4 years earlier and the man who considered nominating her was simply not aware of that at that time. That said, it was only when I read a book about the Big Bang that I heard of her. Somehow the schools forgot to mention her, lol.
Henrietta Swan Leavitt - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

EDIT:

Interestingly enough, when I hear of the word "jerk", I automatically think of a man. Wonder why that is, lol.

Because the female equivalent of "jerk" has one more letter in it.

 

[Mercy Not Sacrifice]

Just wow, gg... very well played.

"gg"? Fellow gamer spotted! /sidetrackery

 

[paarsurrey]

should women rule the world?

If they could get a chance the women could rule the world.

 

[Alceste]

Because the female equivalent of "jerk" has one more letter in it.

Jerky?

Mmmmmm, jerky.

 

[Mercy Not Sacrifice]

Jerky?

Mmmmmm, jerky.

No, it starts with a B and rhymes with "witch."

 

[Koldo]

No, it starts with a B and rhymes with "witch."

Bewitch.

It has 7 letters though, which means you don't know how to count properly.

 

[Mercy Not Sacrifice]

bewitch.

It has 7 letters though, which means you don't know how to count properly.

um...

 

[Mathematician]

That is true. Some people are jerks and genitals have nothing to do with it.

For the record, though, there have been very many influential and important women throughout history in every field and pursuit. Public education in our patriarchal societies just doesn't bother to mention them.

Our 'patriarchal' society has created an education system that fails males more often than it fails females. Some joke.

There's influential females in history, and they are discussed when appropriate, but for much of written history men were the statesmen, scientists, and philosophers and so they receive more attention. You can't squeeze apple juice from an orange. Our education system is much more biased towards Caucasian European-American history than any perceived sexism.

 

[Alceste]

Our 'patriarchal' society has created an education system that fails males more often than it fails females. Some joke.

There's influential females in history, and they are discussed when appropriate, but for much of written history men were the statesmen, scientists, and philosophers and so they receive more attention. You can't squeeze apple juice from an orange. Our education system is much more biased towards Caucasian European-American history than any perceived sexism.

Tell me everything you learned in school about Marie Curie, then we'll talk.

 

[Mathematician]

We talked about her and Bell in chemistry, and when I teach radioactivity I cover her.

 

[Alceste]

We talked about her and Bell in chemistry, and when I teach radioactivity I cover her.

Well good! I'm glad to hear it. I learned about Eli Whitney, Einstein, Bell, etc. but not Curie or any other female of note, except the suffragettes. I did go to school 20 years ago though. Glad to hear there may have been some progress.

 

[paarsurrey]

should women rule the world?

If they could get a chance the women could rule the world.

I think If they don't get a chance by hard work instead of sentimental thinking, they will fail to rule the world in general, exception could be there sometimes though.

 

[Mercy Not Sacrifice]

Our 'patriarchal' society has created an education system that fails males more often than it fails females. Some joke.

No. This is one of the biggest myths of the men's rights movement. Boys are not, I repeat, NOT being singled out in schools. Their poor behavior is almost entirely a product of poor parenting and poverty. I know that conservatives love to blame schools and especially their teachers for anything and everything, but as with 99% of those cases, such charges are stupid and undeserved.

There's influential females in history, and they are discussed when appropriate, but for much of written history men were the statesmen, scientists, and philosophers and so they receive more attention. You can't squeeze apple juice from an orange. Our education system is much more biased towards Caucasian European-American history than any perceived sexism.

Circular logic. The only reason this happened was because of patriarchy, not because of women's abilities.

 

[Alceste]

No. This is one of the biggest myths of the men's rights movement. Boys are not, I repeat, NOT being singled out in schools. Their poor behavior is almost entirely a product of poor parenting and poverty. I know that conservatives love to blame schools and especially their teachers for anything and everything, but as with 99% of those cases, such charges are stupid and undeserved.



Circular logic. The only reason this happened was because of patriarchy, not because of women's abilities.

I agree, particularly with your second point. even if it were true that all the notable statesmen, writers and scholars in history happened to be men (and it isn't), who decided their stories were the only ones we should learn about in school?

 

[Koldo]

I agree, particularly with your second point. even if it were true that all the notable statesmen, writers and scholars in history happened to be men (and it isn't), who decided their stories were the only ones we should learn about in school?

Do you mean to say we should learn about statesmen, writers and scholars that were not notable? Or do you mean to say we should learn about completely different types of people?

 

[Alceste]

Do you mean to say we should learn about statesmen, writers and scholars that were not notable? Or do you mean to say we should learn about completely different types of people?

Eh, I think significant historical women who contributed in a substantial way to our technology and culture are also notable.

I also think history in general would be more interesting if the lives of "peasants" or ordinary people (like us) were discussed and researched more than the lives of nobility, rulers and generals. That crap is all one war after another, who won what, bla bla bla. It makes it seem like nothing interesting has ever happened. History is basically sports for knobheads.

Where did writing come from? Where did agriculture come from? Where did modern medicine come from?

I expect if we asked more interesting questions about history, we'd get more interesting answers.

 

[outis]

I also think history in general would be more interesting if the lives of "peasants" or ordinary people (like us) were discussed and researched more than the lives of nobility, rulers and generals. That crap is all one war after another, who won what, bla bla bla. It makes it seem like nothing interesting has ever happened. History is basically sports for knobheads.

First no Curie (!) and now this...
Let me guess... American school?
For those who missed the other thread: I do realize there are worse schools in the world, that there's good things about some American schools and so forth.

 

[Rakhel]

Actually, my history classes(I went to school in OH) did deal with peasant live. I remember on class in particular, where we were divided into groups and given different eras to do a project on how the average person lived in that time period, and another where we talked about American history.
Ohio history sucked, though. All she talked about was some earthquake that left a "big, hairy crack" in her bedroom wall.
Wars didn't factor in until World History, but at least he made it interesting.

The only thing that wasn't discussed was the civil rights movement.

 

[Koldo]

Eh, I think significant historical women who contributed in a substantial way to our technology and culture are also notable.

I knew it already.
I meant that question taking into consideration your conditional that all the notable statesmen, writers and scholars in history happened to be men.

I also think history in general would be more interesting if the lives of "peasants" or ordinary people (like us) were discussed and researched more than the lives of nobility, rulers and generals. That crap is all one war after another, who won what, bla bla bla. It makes it seem like nothing interesting has ever happened. History is basically sports for knobheads.

Where did writing come from? Where did agriculture come from? Where did modern medicine come from?

I expect if we asked more interesting questions about history, we'd get more interesting answers.

The problem is that to understand the context in which these advancements happened, one has to learn about the major events happening at the time. Plus, there is likely far more data available on notable people than on commoners.

But, indeed, too much of what i learned in history classes was simply booooring.