At the beginning of this year, I wrote a story on How is it that we're still celebrating first blacks in 2018?
And then graduation season hit and we couldn't help but applaud the women getting capped - from celebrities like Nomzamo Mbatha and K Naomi to lesser known mortals. It was a delicious feast for the eyes and countless feathers for our caps of confidence. And a reminder that we can empower ourselves.
But also that we still need doors opened (and not in the chivalrous sense) or knocked down.
Fifty weeks later, here's a list of some of the stories we've dropped about South African women mainly and more abroad.
We made a note to include their names so they wouldn't be faceless. At the very least - to have their name in the blurb. I'll admit I wanted to update the headlines where we hadn't as I created the list below. It shows we even still have big lessons to learn.
First Black! makes for a very clickable headline.
In no particular order...
- Get to know SA's first black female plastic surgeon - Dr Gloria Tshukudu
- Meet the first black woman set to become a bank owner in South Africa
- We should know a lot more about Miriam Tlali - the first black woman to publish a novel in SA
- The first black, trans and disabled teen signed to one of the most famous model agencies in the world finally has her own cover
- What ever happened to the ‘first black plus-sized model’?
- How much the first black South African woman to play at Wimbledon got in prize money
Most recently, I saw a Vogue story on 26-year-old photographer Nadine Ijewere on her historic Vogue cover. Well a week ago, anyway.
The blurb read: "When Nadine Ijewere photographed Dua Lipa, Binx Walton, and Letitia Wright on the Kentish coast for this issue’s cover story, she became the first woman of colour to shoot the cover of any Vogue in the magazine’s 125-year global history. Here, the one-to-watch shares the details of her remarkable career to date."
Incredible.
READ MORE: Why you probably shouldn’t expect a hug from your boss - even at your Christmas party
And a few more historic moments where black women shot the lights out in terms of their careers.
In our own country, WITS and UCT got their first black female chancellors - Judy Dlamini and Mamokgethi Phakeng (vice-chancellor) respectively.
And Peggy-Sue Khumalo became CEO of Standard Bank's wealth division.
Here's to breaking more glass ceilings.
We're headed in the right direction but do you feel weary of these headlines or do you always click your fingers and click on the screen to celebrate the news?
We'd love to hear from you. Carry on the conversation here, as we wrap us this year and take a look at how far we've come in changing what the workplace looks like and who's filling those corner offices. And take our poll below.
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