Now that we chicks are the breadwinners in so many families,
it's easy to forget how many jobs we couldn't get hired for. These eight
career choices are now an option, thanks to the glass-ceiling-bashing
gals who came before us.
Valentina Tereshkova and the cosmonauts of the Russian spacecraft Voskhod 1 in 1964
When most people think of astronauts, they think of Buzz Aldrin, Neil
Armstrong and (if they're uber-nerds) Yuri Gagarin. But only two years
after Gagarin became the first man in space, Valentina Tereshkova became
the first woman in space, meaning women have been boldly going since
1963. Since that time, Sally Ride and 55 other brave and powerful women
have broken the exosphere... as compared to 564 men. Either way, beat
that, Michael Jordan.
Along with women's new stronger role at home (primary caregiver,
primary wage-earner) comes a perk that few, whether male or female, ever
experience — executive officership. Women are landing CEO and other
executive positions at major organizations left and right.
Marissa Mayer moved from a top slot at Google to
the top
slot at Yahoo and the CEO of a little thing called Facebook, and has
earned the company a little cash by way of mobile ad revenue (18.4
percent of the market) since her induction. In fact, the automotive
boys' club just got a rude awakening with the appointment of Mary Barra
as CEO of GM.
3
Government representative
Even though women are slightly more than 50 percent of the population
(whom the gender marketers bow to in advertising because we "hold the
pursestrings"), historically we have been underrepresented in
high-powered government positions. Thanks to the likes of Hillary
Clinton, Madeleine Albright, Condoleezza Rice and up-and-comers Kirsten
Gillibrand and Wendy Davis, we're pretty confident that the White House
will take on a hue of presidential pink sometime in the next 10 years.
Given the obvious assumption that women cook and clean, we know
you'll find this one amusing. Up until recently, despite many a man's
assertion that he "can't cook," apparently, this field is dominated by
the not-so-weaker sex. From a recent
Time magazine article,
you'd think women didn't even know how to cook. We'd give you a link,
but you have to be a subscriber, which is fair. (But here's a hint:
They're all men. Guess they've never watched the Food Network.)
Women have been playing basketball since the 1890s, when Smith
College introduced the sport. Since then, the popularity has increased
steadily, spiking in the 1980s, when the NCAA began sponsoring the
sport. These superwomen (almost literally, as many of them are also
super-strong) now have their own pro league, the Women's National
Basketball League, that gets ESPN time, too.
Back in the day, something as "coarse" as making alcohol was a man's
game (probably not really, but a lot of stand-up guys likely went to
jail for their honeys, so we'll go with it). These days, women are
bringing their culinary chops and money-making know-how to the brew
world in a big way. Julie Hertz is the craft beer program director at
the Brewer's Association; Wendy Littlefield is the cofounder of Vanberg
& DeWulf, and helped pioneer the importation of Belgian artisan ales
(thank you, Wendy!); and the VP of marketing for one of our fave craft
breweries, Dogfish Head, is the one and only Mariah Calagione.
The big, bad world of sports is no match for a woman. We may not play
much football, but that doesn't mean we don't know just as much about
how it works as the boys do. Unfortunately, if you google "female
sportscasters," you're inundated with list after list of who's hottest.
Good news is, if they had to make a list of 25 of the hottest, that
means there are plenty more who didn't make the list.
Despite the long-standing myth that women can't drive, gals have been
making some significant advancements in the field of, well, driving.
From NASCAR to IndyCar, the ladies are proving that anything boys can
do, girls can do, too.
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