7 top moments for women in 2019

Even though 2020 is expected to be an even bigger year for women all over the world, this year left behind many remarkable moments for us that will remain in history as important steps towards gender equality and female rights. 

1. Esther Duflo wins Nobel Prize in Economics. Next to other two academics, Duflo won the Nobel Prize due to her experiments to discover the most effective ways to end poverty in the developing world, according to The Guardian. 

The 46 year old academic is the second woman to even win the economics prize and the youngest in the Nobel Prize history. As read on Market Watch, women in the economic field are more likely to experience discrimination based on gender, age, marital status and even on research topic, which is why this win represents one of the triumphs for women in 2019. 

2. First all woman spacewalk. On October 18 this year, space history was done. Christina Koch and Jessica Meir completed the first spacewalk with an all women team, to replace a power controller. As read on UN Women, the walk had to be postponed because NASA did not have appropriate space suits for the girls, which shows this is a major step towards the fight of sexism. 

3. Finland gets youngest female Prime Minister in the world. Sanna Marin, 34, was selected this year as the youngest female Prime Minister and became the head of a five party coalition all led by women. Finland’s prime minister from 2014 to 2015, Alexander Stubb, highlighted the fact that the leaders of the five parties in government are female.” “One day, gender will not matter in government. Meanwhile pioneers", he said. 

Also read: How to take care of your mental health in 2020

4. India got its first woman navy pilot. Fulfilling her life dream of becoming a pilot, with 24 years  Sub Lieutenant Shivangi, 24, became the first woman pilot for the Indian Navy and two more women pilots also got their Naval wings in December 2019.

5. A woman helped capture the first image ever of a black hole. With 29 years old, computer scientist Katie Bauman created an algorithm that helped capture the first image of a black hole ever. USA senator Kamala Harris, recognized her work on twitter: “Katie Bouman proved women in STEM don’t just make the impossible, possible, but make history while doing it.”

6. Women are taking the streets. One of the most important moments of this year was definitely the feminist movement to end gender violence and in 2019, Chilean women set the example. The feminist collective “Las Tesis” created a performance called “A rapist in your path” which empowered women from all over the world to raise their voice and talk about their stories of abuse. 

7. Some countries are working towards the end of child marriage. In 2019 the first African summit on child marriage and female genital mutilation took place in Senegal and a fatwa against child marriage was created. Also, according to UN Women, in Indonesia the age of marriage for girls went from age 16 to 19.