A Star Among the Stars
Imagine a time when a person was unable to have a specific career because of their gender. It sounds unlikely, especially in the society that we live in today but this was actually a major issue in the past. In fact, it was not until the early 1900’s that female equality, specifically in the scientific field, finally ascended. There are many positives and negatives to women progressing in astronomy, which resulted in numerous contributions being formulated. Much of the new information we have today would have not existed if women had accepted the discrimination they were forced to experience in the past. While male chauvinism and sexism played a role in the lack of female progress in astronomy, it was not the only reason. The setbacks women faced in…show more content… Compared to the past, women have had abundant progress towards taking over executive positions previously held by men. Career advancement opportunities may be equal for both men and women now but this was not always the circumstance. For Annie Jump Cannon, it was impossible for women in her line of work to achieve a job position higher than an assistant. It did not matter if a woman was qualified, or “superior” to the men holding higher positions, they would not advance career wise making them victims to sexism. Cannon was one of the view women who managed to dominate their fields thanks to her “tidiness” and patience for monotonous work. She managed to overcome the status quo set by society; she wrote novels and articles to escalate astronomy's status. She classified numerous more starts than any other individual; a total of about 500,000 stars. Cannon’s stellar classification system was formally adopted and is even the classification system scientists use today. Her career managed to last for 40 years until her retirement. Not only did Cannon manage to surpass the career expectations set for women, she made it her