CTE Celebrate International Women’s Day 2022 and Nominate their Wonder Women #BreakTheBias

Maye Musk has been a model for 50 years and has been on the covers of world-famous magazines, she also works as dietitian. Maye is now 70 years old, she is the mother of Elon Musk and his siblings. She has been a very hard-working single mother and has contributed significantly to Elon Musk’s success. She always shows me that it is never too late to do things you really want to do.

Simone Weil was a French mystic, progressive philosopher and activist in the French Resistance during the Second World War. Albert Camus described her as “the only great spirit of our time”. Simone Weil created the Veil Law recognising abortion, which embodied both the liberation and emancipation of women.

My grandfather suffered a brain haemorrhage shortly after I was born. Because of this serious illness, his body is paralysed on one side and he can no longer speak. My grandma took care of him for 27 years and never left him for a day. I wanted to go travelling with her when she was younger, but she didn’t trust other people to take good care of my grandpa. I admire her for her care, strength and dedication.

I admire her not only for her achievements as a successful business woman, but also for her courage, resilience and great efforts to build a community that bring young women together. I’m very much inspired by her book “Lean In” about leadership and women’s career development, as she nicely put “A truly equal world would be one where women ran half our countries and companies and men ran half our homes.”

She inspired and fascinated my generation and many to follow with the Harry Potter series.

Sophie Scholl was a key member of a student resistance group against National Socialism, the White Rose – she illegally bought a typewriter and wrote intellectual and philosophical theses urging her fellow students to resist the Nazi regime. After she was seen distributing leaflets denouncing the Nazis at her university, she was caught and sentenced to death shortly afterwards. Her last words were: “what does my death matter, if through us, thousands of people are awakened and stirred to action?”

Grandma Moses was an American folk artist. She began painting art at the age of 78 and is an outstanding example of a successful art career in advanced age. She painted more than 1000 paintings based on her daily life experiences, which inspired many young people around the world to follow their passion and realise their dreams.

My Wonder Woman is Jenny Langping. She has won the Olympics Game gold medal twice, as a player and as a coach. What a double! Named as the ‘Iron Hammer’, she has been coaching the Chinese and American women volleyball national team for the past 20 years. Her never-give-up spirit, tenacity, determination, professionalism, master of tactics has encouraged and inspired the whole generation in China and around the world.

This is my grandmother, why was she amazing? Because she sheltered many people and children in her home during the Second World War and afterwards during the Lebanon War. She had a big heart and always tried to help people without judging them, and that’s why she is an example of kindness and charity for me. Grandmother, I miss you, I love you.

During her lifetime, women scientists were subject to discrimination, but Marie Curie was not afraid of hostility, continued to learn, had the courage to present her ideas, and eventually became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize.

As Mother Teresa said, “spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.” She has been a role model to me and countless people in the world, because of her simple and humble but fulfilling way of living, her dedication to helping and empowering others all her life, and her devotion to peace and happiness around the world.

Astrid Lindgren, the Swedish writer who is best known for her children’s books series such as Pipi Longstocking, is a real idol for me, of course because of the wonderful stories she wrote and which I loved so much as a child. I admire her as a writer, but also as a woman – for her courage and dedication in overcoming the challenges life threw at her and standing up for what was dear to her, but also for her intuition and for always being able to see the world a little bit through the eyes of a child. With the many strong and independent female characters in her books, she has created many little Wonder Women for me who still guide and inspire me today.

In my opinion, all working mothers are Wonder Women. For decades, working mothers have felt guilty for choosing to take on a professional role alongside their housework. It’s true, the life of a working mother is often a struggle to fulfil the role of a mother while managing the challenges of a professional career. You may find that when some of your colleagues became mothers, they did not have as much time to take care of clothes or grooming because they put more time into their work and family. Working mothers have sacrificed a lot of themselves. So, they are Wonder Women.

When I think of a Wonder Woman, my Wonder Woman is my English teacher from primary school. She not only helped me develop a deep love for learning foreign languages, but also some important character traits like patience, diligence and consistency.

I admire Jo who is a fictional character from the well-known novel Little Women written by Louisa May Alcott. The Four girls, despite with completely different personalities and pursuits, are all self-respecting, self-loving, pursuing and insisting their own believes. Especially Jo who shows us the tenacity, generosity, independence, confidence, and freedom of a woman. Here shares to you a passage that Jo said. ‘I just feel like woman, they have minds and they have souls, as well as just hearts. And they’ve got ambition and they’ve got talent, as well as just beauty. We have more than capable of doing what is necessary. No matter how difficult, we hold the required power to set ourselves free.’

My mother shows me what it means to be a Wonder Woman. To friends and family, she is a loving wife, a great friend, a caring daughter and an outstanding colleague. To me, she is a superwoman full of kindness and passion. She is very busy with her career, but she is also always by my side. The most important thing is that she has always remained herself. Sometimes she is like a little girl who secretly throws snowballs at me on a freezing winter day. I hope that in the future I can also become a great woman like her.

I choose Li Qingzhao as my Wonder Woman. Li Qingzhao was a Chinese poet and essayist during the Song Dynasty. She is considered one of the greatest poets in Chinese history and is known as “the first talented woman of all time”. I like her because her words are bold, frank and profound. She is also a role model who shows that all women can achieve great things in every way.

Mao Asada is one of the women I admire. Mao Asada is a famous Japanese figure skater. She always challenges herself with tough figures at competitions. Even if those moves have a high chance of going wrong. At the 2010 Winter Olympics, for example, she managed three triple axel jumps in a single competition. Even if she made serious mistakes during the competition, and she fell heavily on the ice more than once, she still stood back up and continued to perform the following difficult movements. This is not easy, considering the attention of the audience and the psychological impact of the mistakes. It is admirable that she completed the competition with such high quality and pressure. Her sportsmanship touched me.

This is my grandmother, my father’s mother. She was born in a small village in central Russia, her teenage years fell in the time of World War 2, she could not get a solid education, but this fact did not influence her personality. The way she dealt with people and life inspired me. She accepted everything with joy, never judged and never got upset about things. She accepted life and people as they are and was always responsive to the needs of others. This helps me a lot in my life to build relationships with people and to cope with life’s challenges. It doesn’t matter what you are or what you have achieved socially, what matters is who you are, how peaceful, stable and joyful you are inside to move on and move forward. So that you can develop your best qualities and evolve. To be able to make the people around you happy.