Even with all the advances being made in technology and the computer industry, it continues to be a difficult task for a woman to be as successful as she potential can in American society. The accomplishments Christy Haubegger has made should not only be celebrated by the Hispanic community, but it should also be celebrated by all women in general. Any professional woman will probably tell you the same thing, things are still not equal in the workplace. Sure, women have made advances and continue to do so, but the truth of the matter is that women are still having to be twice as good and work twice as hard as any man in order to be looked upon as an equal. The reason for this is not so much that men do not want women to be seen as their equal as it is that women lack strong role models and fail to help each other. According to Paula Kamen a feminist writer of the new generation, "The most powerful way to broadcast a more 'mainstream ' message [about feminism] is through the media". If this is so, then why are we not seeing more female role models as we should? It seems that as time goes by, we hear a story about a talented woman, but then her story is over and we wait a couple more years until we hear another story. With all the talented and educated women out there, one would think that the media would not have to wait a couple years to find a story to write about. Haubegger herself talks about how the lack of role models for Latinas is one of the reasons why she wanted to start the magazine. If finding a female role model is difficult in today's society, try finding a Hispanic female role model. It is even more difficult. Indeed, one of Haubegger's goals for her magazine was to "celebrate and empower Latinas in this country".

Another reason women do not seem to advance as much as we should is that many times we fail to help each other. Women seem to judge each other much more harsh than they would judge a man. Why is this so? Is it because we believe that other women should have to struggle as much as we have did to get where we are? Or is it because we believe that by helping a fellow woman it would lower our credibility as an objective thinker (as if being objective meant thinking that women were automatically less qualified). What makes matters worse is that society reinforces this behavior by calling women who help other women "biased", "men haters" or "soft hearted", etc. According to Curry-Johnson, another feminist writer,"Women can make sure that as long as we are leaning on each other, we are also protecting and celebrating one another".

Of course there are a lot of women out there who are more than willing to help out another woman. To these women I say "thank you" and hope that the seeds they have planted bear much fruit. In my opinion, there needs to be more women like these, like Haubegger, who want to see other women advance. With support from each other, I am sure we will be able to accomplish what we set our minds to without any excess obstacles.

Links to other pages

National Women's History Project

Moderna magazine's web page (almost as good as Latina magazine)

A web page about Frida Kahlo

A web page about Dolores Huerta

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