Even though we belong to the 21st century, there are many kinds of shocking injustices happening all around us. One of them is the gender inequality that still hovers over our heads, despite how far we have come with the help of feminist movements.

For example, you will not be surprised if a man at work told you that your place was in the kitchen instead of the boardroom, or that you should be making sandwiches instead of presentations. No matter how educated, hardworking, or dedicated women get, their household will always be considered their prime responsibility. Men, on the other hand, are often free of such pressures in the society.

Take a look at what a 2017 report says about laws that specifically restrict women from doing certain kinds of jobs:

In 90% of countries, women continue to face gender discrimination. A detailed 2016 World Bank report, “Women, Business, and the Law 2016,” exposing gender barriers in business and law revealed that 100 of 173 countries block women from the same economic opportunities available to men.

The most common jobs excluding women, per the report, include:

• mining

• Construction

• factory work

• metal work

• Jobs deemed “hazardous,” “arduous,” or “morally inappropriate.”

In 29 countries, women legally can’t work at night, which imposes another set of restrictions for any jobs that include a night shift, or early morning work. The intention is to protect women from violence or health risks. The result, however, keeps women in lower-paying jobs and does little to counter gender-based violence.

Following are three professions that the world wrongly thinks women are incapable of making a living out of:

Driving:

It is no secret that the popular opinion about women driving is that they are bad drivers and don’t belong in the driving seat. In a big kingdom like Saudi Arabia, women were granted their right to drive only recently; before that it was always thought that driving was not a suitable activity for women, let along profession.

However, you might be surprised to know that a study in 2019 found out the following:

Female drivers in the world of auto-sport are genetically wired up to deal with the extreme conditions better than their male peers.

There is no difference between the physical fitness of males and females but women, with suitable training and experience, could become faster.

Software Development:

Subjects like science or math are thought of as men’s subjects; a thought process like this implies that women’s brains aren’t wired for such subjects because their brains aren’t good with numbers and critical thinking.

Software development is one of the professions where people see no place for women. According to 2018 Women in Tech Report, women are struggling to advance in their careers, and increasingly continue to be stuck in junior-level roles.

However, many women like Durga Madiraju are breaking that myth. Durga Madiraju is a software Engineer, and poet, and writes under the pen name of Jane Summers. She has written 7 books of poetry classics (Seasonal Woods (76 poems), Summer Woods (78 poems), Autumn Woods (78 poems), Winter Woods (78 poems), Springtime Woods (76 poems), Mid-Summer Woods (78 poems), Woods, a Summer Weave (100 poems), and Artsy Life, A collection of 12 Short story classics. Woods, a Summer Weave contain, Prayers of peace, 6 poems that promote peace, harmony, support, respect, and appreciation of any.

The poetry in general, define themes through woods in summer, and other seasons, through poet’s eyes, an expression of beauty, and support of flowers, trees, lakes, sunrise, sunset, festivals, pooja, and celebration of harvest, a time to express and bestow prayers of harmony. The books promote diversity of cultures in every area, to promote peace.

These poetry classics are available in all the major book stores such as amazon.com, Barnes and Nobles, and other major book stores. The book ‘Autumn Woods’ has been showcased in the Frankfurt Book Festival, and ‘Mid-Summer woods’ in the Miami Book Festival. The poetry can be read by any an age and can be viewed by the reader as a treasure of new learning for wisdom, and for positive growth.

An excerpt of a book review, Jane Summers states, “A person that can listen and appreciate others is a beautiful person.” To that I add a reader who can enjoy the thoughts of a poet is a fortunate person. Reading the words as they bring to life glimpses and observations of feelings of love, respect and friendship within the pages of Seasonal Woods is a wonderful example of just how poetry can be written in a humble and unassuming way. The Pacific book review and US book review provided excellent reviews of the poetry classics.

Durga Madiraju, composed lyrics and songs, Seasonal Summers, and Summer weave, a collection of 6 piano classics, and available on cdbaby. The poems are based on the poetry classics. These songs will be made vocal at the end of the year. Durga Madiraju will write the film scripts based on the poetry, to produce a movie(s), either this year or next year. Durga Madiraju, is a CEO, and owns Summer Market Place, an in-line store.

Durga Madiraju is a software Engineer, and has an MA in Economics, MBA and MS in Information Systems. She is a certified Scrum Master, Six Sigma Green belt, Quality by Design and Lean Management. She has been in the software industry for 20 years, and provided solutions for automation, Quality improvements through six sigma and lean methodologies. She was awarded the Wall of Stars and Technology award in the AT&T Information Technology Department.

Durga Madiraju wrote a business and economics book, Scrum Art Handbook. The book discusses a new methodology, capabilities evolution model, a patented model, aimed to drive business processes for fulfillment of business goals through re-evaluation of business use case scenarios.

She has patented business technology such as Business Improvement Rules to improve and increase a revenue model for growth. Tagging a system rule is another patented model devised by Durga Madiraju, to tag a process, as complete for fulfillment of a business goal accomplished. Agile tool metrics was approved by AT&T as a model, for comparison and re-evaluation of agile metrics for improved metrics.

Durga Madiraju was awarded the Marquis Award in 2017, 2018 and 2019, as a biographical recorded for inclusion in Who’s Who America. This award is limited to individuals, who possess professional integrity, demonstrate outstanding achievement in their respective fields, and have made innumerable contributions to society as a whole.

Durga Madiraju received the POWER of Empowerment excellence award from the Professional women’s organization. Durga Madiraju was awarded the Presidential Voluntary Award for volunteering 250 years a year, for the year 2014-2017.

Durga Madiraju was interviewed on Books on Authors on TV, and web wire, radio. The book Autumn Woods was exhibited in the Frankfurt Book Festival, and Mid-Summer woods in the Miami Book Festival. Durga Madiraju will release a CD of songs, a book video as well as author ads on TV this year.

Coal Mining:

Imagine, in an advanced country like China, it is illegal for women to work in the coal mining industry. Many women around the world who give interviews for a job in coal mining are looked down upon and treated with suspicion.

In a world where women are constantly fighting for equal rights, they are still not considered good enough or strong enough and always have to fight harder for the opportunities men easily get. However, according to a report that cites The Bureau of Labor Statistics, there have been steps in the right direction that prove popular opinions wrong:

About 13 percent of the mining industry is now female. 17 percent of mining engineering degrees in 2013 were awarded to women as compared to 6 percent in 1998. And, interestingly, the new head of the Department of Mining Engineering, Priscilla Nelson, who took over the reins in January, is the first woman ever to head the department.

Here’s hoping that women continue to fight these stereotypes and allow nobody to dictate what they choose to do as a profession.