First Woman Achievements

[AnJaLi]

On Wednesday, Maryam Mirzakhani became the first woman in 78 years to be awarded the prestigious Fields Medal, considered the highest honor in mathematics. She was selected for "stunning advances in the theory of Riemann surfaces and their moduli spaces."

The Fields Medal is awarded every four years by the International Mathematical Union to outstanding mathematicians under 40 who show promise of future achievement. With the announcement of Mirzakhani and this year's other awardees—Arthur Avila, Manjul Bhargava, and Martin Hairer—there now have been 54 male and 1 female medalists.

Mirzakhani's accomplishment is all the more groundbreaking in light of the well-documented disadvantages and biases women face in math and science. For example, in a 2008 Yale study, professors were asked to rate fictional applicants for a lab manager position. When given an application with a male name at the top, professors rated the candidate more competent and hirable than when given an otherwise identical form with a female name. This bias was found in both male and female faculty members.

And that's not all women in STEM fields have to contend with: A July report found that a full 64 percent of women in various scientific fields were sexually harassed while doing fieldwork.

Mirzakhani, who grew up in Iran before earning her Ph.D. at Harvard and becoming a professor at Stanford, told the Clay Mathematics Institute in 2008 that she did not initially realize her strength in math: "I don't think that everyone should become a mathematician, but I do believe that many students don't give mathematics a real chance. I did poorly in math for a couple of years in middle school; I was just not interested in thinking about it. I can see that without being excited mathematics can look pointless and cold."

[AnJaLi]

Brave, independent and unconventional, Homai Vyarawalla is known to be India’s first female photo journalist. She captured some of the most memorable and incredible moments of Indian history – from the first flag hoisting ceremony at the Red Fort on 16th August 1947 to the cremation of world renowned dignitaries like Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. Let's remember this amazing lady and her extraordinary contribution to Indian media.

Her work clearly narrates the story of the birth and rise of the largest democracy in the world. Despite this exceptional contribution in recording the social and political life of a nation in transition, she lived most of her life in anonymity. In a profession that is still mostly male dominated in this country, she hardly received any recognition throughout the four decades of her career.

Remembered as a dauntless woman and extremely passionate towards her work, most of her colleagues have said that she was usually the only woman standing in the front line taking photographs of events which had a deep impact on our nation’s evolution.

Her most well-known photographs include the picture of the first flag hoisting ceremony at the Red Fort on 16th August 1947, the cremation of world renowned dignitaries like Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru and the epic picture of Lord Mountbatten when he was leaving India. The picture of Dalai Lama crossing over to the Indian Territory in 1959 happens to be another great inclusion in her archives.

She also photographed other moments of great historical significance such as the visit of Queen Elizabeth with Duke to India and of the meeting where the leaders voted for the June 3 Plan leading to the Partition of India. She was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 2011 for her extraordinary contributions in her field.

[AnJaLi]

Arunima Sinha lost her leg when some burglars demanded her gold chain, and on her refusal, pushed her out of the moving train. She was hit by a passing train and suffered severe injuries.Two years later she became the first woman amputee to climb the Mount Everest. From battling the difficult days in the hospital to chasing her dreams of scaling the highest peak, Sinha’s story is all about courage, passion, dedication and respect.

“I turned my artificial leg into my strength and stubbornly chose the most difficult sport for myself,” she says.

Inspired by cricketer Yuvraj Singh, who had successfully defeated cancer, she decided to “do something” with her life. She didn’t want people to pity her. Instead, she wanted to get her life back, and, with support from her brother and coach, she became more determined about what she had to do.
“When I was undergoing treatment at AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences) for four months, I could not do anything on my own. But then one day I decided to climb the Everest,” she says.

She joined Eco Everest Expedition group in the Tata Steel Adventure Foundation-run training camp in Uttarkashi and got trained under ace mountaineer Bachendri Pal. While going through a year-long rigorous mental and physical training she would sometimes feel disheartened when she could not catch up with “normal” people, but her strong dedication kept her going.

Sinha had climbed 21,110 ft up Mt Chhamser Kangri (21,798 ft) of Ladakh in September 2011, but had to abandon the expedition 690 ft short of the summit due to bad weather conditions. But her aim was to scale the Everest.

And, after immense hard work, training and 52 days of a difficult climb from Kathmandu to the top of the peak she fulfilled her dream as she conquered the highest summit which was 8,848 meters above the sea level on May 21, 2013.

“I would not have climbed Mount Everest if I had not met with the accident. Though I lost my leg in the incident, it made me much stronger. When I was going through a tough time, I remembered my mother’s words who told me that when on the edge, look behind and see how much you have climbed and you will realize that you are only one step away from your destination,” she says.

[AnJaLi]

Nicola Adams OBE is a British professional boxer. The first woman to win an Olympic boxing title, she is the 2012 and 2016 Olympic gold medalist in the women's flyweight division. As of 27 May 2016 she is the reigning Olympic, World, Commonwealth Games and European Games champion at flyweight.

On being asked how it all began Nicola says: “I was good at it, I was the only girl and I suppose I was the little star, and I loved it. I loved it when people said I boxed like a boy. It gave me a lot of confidence and street cred.” A routine developed. Nicola went to Agnes Stewart School each day, came home, did her homework, went to the gym, came back home, went to bed.” “What mum wouldn’t be happy with that?” says Dee. At the age of 13, she won her first competitive fight – there was a problem though: practically everybody hated the idea of women boxing, and it was another four years before she found a second opponent. The situation was this: the women’s sport was completely banned in the UK until 1996. You’re probably wondering why. Well, it was on the grounds that premenstrual syndrome made women too unstable to box.

“It’s hard to believe that ban carried on until 1996, and the reason is like something from a hundred years before,” she says. “But women have had to fight for everything, they had to fight for the vote, they had to fight to compete in the marathon, it’s always been a fight.”

Adams represented Haringey Police Community Club at boxing. She is openly bisexual, and was named the most influential LGBT person in Britain by The Independent in 2012. She also became the first openly LGBT person to win an Olympic boxing Gold medal, after her win at the 2012 Summer Olympics.