Almost all the artifacts that we value as a society were made by the order of men.
Debbie Chachra, “Why I Am Not a Maker,” The Atlantic, January 23, 2015
I was intriuged by the discussion surrounding this quote because it reminded me of the hierarchical structure of the world, especially when it comes to gender and occupation. It reminded me of an article I read a few months ago concerning equality of opportunity and equality of outcome. The former entails that gains people make are the same while the latter looks to ensure that everyone has the opportunities to make those gains. Although gender equality is still a problem, I think many organizations including tech corporations and academic institutions have been working over the past years to ensure more equality of opportunity between men and women. Although the statistics of have improved over time, we still see more women in positions relating to healthcare and more majoring in the humanities in college despite the fact that women made up 59.5% of all U.S. colleges as of 2021. There is still a small number of women (compared to men) involved with STEM fields despite the improved circumstances of the education system. From these statistics, I can’t help but think that opportunity of outcome is not possible because of the choices people make. So I feel like the hierarchy created by society to value men in positions that involve innovations is highly influenced by the decisions men and women make (although some of it has been influenced by the marginalization of women, which society still struggles to improve).
This quote says a lot of things about our society that I haven’t fully deciphered. Nevertheless, it kindled my ambition to reduce suffering in the world. I want to be involved with software engineering and computer animation. I intend to use these mediums to assist people with disabilities through Virtual Reality, detect and find ways to contain climate disasters before they even happen through data science, and also inspire people to seek good moral values through animated films.
I’m hoping to gain some knowledge about data visualization from this class and know how to use some of its tools. I think the idea of investigating trends in data is a powerful tool to solve potential outbreaks of diseases or natural disasters before the occur. It will also help me gain a few insights into the field of data science, which I hope to engage with in the future.
