A photo story by Magnolia McComish
There is an unspoken community of women. They are living different lives, but every day women wake up and get to work in one way or another. This photo story highlights the intersectionality, hobbies, careers, and goals of women, and how they have impacted their life course.
Intersectionality was coined in 1989 by Kimberlé Crenshaw. The Oxford Dictionary defines intersectionality as, "the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage." In terms of this photo story, every person shared the overlapping quality of being a woman, and each has individual privileges or disadvantages unique to them.
For this project, I met with many women to understand how womanhood has impacted their life course. After months of brainstorming, getting to know, interviewing, and photographing these women, I came to find that all women have had a struggle just because they are female. I also found that this only made these women more powerful.
These pictures are taken on a candid day in life, it may be a normal workday, a school day, or a birthday but it was never "photoshoot day." It was important to me that they were comfortable and confident when talking about their experiences and being photographed.
I plan to continue this project, capturing more women and sharing their stories. Even if this work only empowers the women involved, I'd consider it a success.
Anna Zaptsi, 33, is a Psychologist who grew up in Ptolemaida, Greece, and moved to Sevilla, Spain in 2013. Growing up gender norms were very traditional. For example, if she wanted to play football she couldn't because it was for boys. Additionally, growing up in Greece, Anna noticed that many of her peers thought they were superior to people of other countries because of their history. Anna questioned what they had done since then to maintain that worldview.
She came to Sevilla to earn her master's in Educational Psychology and went on to earn a Ph.D. in Media Studies Audio-Visual Communication. Spain was described as a place with a mindset closer to her own, however, in Spain, she felt excluded for the first time in her life. The classes she expected to be in English turned out to be in Spanish. She was left out of class discussions and jokes for months. "I had to not reinvent myself, but I had to try and find me, in this new place, with this new mentality." The Grecian superiority she had been taught growing up meant very little here, she had to find her identity.
Anna discovered her interest in feminism during a Feminism Studies class. Feminism sparked a new passion within her. Although she was learning the bare minimum in class, she knew she needed to know more, “if you want to find something more you need to do it on your own." Feminism studies gave Anna purpose and direction. She developed new perspectives and insight as an immigrant from Greece to Spain. Her research reflects this interest. It points out gender discrimination in mass media.
"I am very grateful to this place, to the people here, because this place gave me the sense that I was looking for."
Linda smiles at a message outside her office. Linda's work empowers her by empowering others.
Linda Pizzoli, 34, is an Italian immigrant who came to Spain to seek better opportunities as a woman, officially moving in 2017. She describes Italy as a bad place for women, especially those who want to be taken seriously in a career. "Men have the power, and you simply have the tasks...decided by a man." This culture led her to Spain.
Currently, she is a social worker at a Non-Government Organization (NGO). She feels happy working in an environment that makes gender empowerment part of its mission. She works primarily with elderly people, homeless people, and sex workers. She explained that the women in these three groups suffer in extreme amounts. They are all excluded populations, but each faces additional struggles decided by their intersectionality.
In this work, she forms relationships built on trust, time, and patients, with women in situations of extreme exclusion. They suffer gender and socioeconomic discrimination, and other circumstances throughout their lives further contributing to her struggle. Linda works to empower them to live safer, more socially included lives as it best fits the individual.
Linda explained that many of the women she works with experience internalized sexism, so they are very reluctant to listen to her the first or second time she meets them. So when she can empower them, she is also empowering herself.
"Being woman is not a problem; it is a force."
Mary's rings have almost become a part of her identity.
Mary McDonnell, 21, is constantly getting to know herself better. There were many years when her experiences and society had convinced her that she needs to please men. She dressed for the male gaze and had a mindset that supported it too.
With time she came to realize she wasn't straight, something she never considered in high school. "I was so caught up thinking about guys, I never stopped to consider liking girls was a possibility, let alone the possibility that I didn't like men at all." She also faced some of her insecurities. She explained that she had always been self-conscience about her body hair, but then considered where that beauty standard came from. In the end, she stopped shaving altogether.
When Mary is in public she is perceived as a woman, men stare at her, and people expect her to act like one. However, this doesn't mean that Mary feels like a woman every day. Her feelings towards her gender identity and the static view people have of her is a paradox that she is constantly learning more about.
Jillian Pagliuca, 21, always appears put together. Whether she is on the tennis court, in the library, or grocery shopping she gives the impression that she’s a professional. Jillian is the middle sibling of two sisters. The trio grew up under the careful watch of their stay-at- home mom while their father worked. The four would pass time shopping, playing dress up, and with barbies. This is the foundation for Jillian's self-proclaimed girly-girl style.
Jillian is studying in undergrad to be a high school teacher, but her ambitions and intentions stretch further than that. "I want to be a teacher, so I can stay home with my own children through the summers." Summers off work are enticing after her own childhood spent with her mom and sisters. However, Jillian’s career goal is to teach teachers. School comes naturally to her, and she hopes to follow in the footsteps of her older sister who is currently working towards her Ph.D. in biomedical engineering. Jillian would like to be a professor of education, maintaining summers off and helping people understand how to teach effectively.
Jillian often shows up to the library with two purses. One for the typical phone, keys wallet, and another for her schoolwork. She is familiar with working hard. Since middle school she has balanced competitive tennis with school, never letting either slip below her high standards. Jillian thrives off the fulfillment working and succeeding gives her. She knows one day her kids will be her priority in life, but she also knows she needs a career to feel fulfilled.
888 - Angel numbering meaning balance.
Aji writes poetry to channel her ideas and intentions.
Ajani Powell, 21,
"Too Much" They say I’m too much Too much to love Handles too hard Too much body
Roll eyes shut
Tear ducts closed
Low and behold Too much to expose
Too much to care
In the world
Too much to live
Another day fighting my own
Too much to give
Of myself
With nothing in return
Too much to know
To know it all
And to not learn
Too much too loud
To speak it out
To turn away
Too much too fast
To live this life
To the next day
Though too much emphasis they place
On my purpose
For I surface triumphant
I am victory
Due to much of my character
I do too much to those that do not do
Enough
What's said about my worth
When they lack virtue
I make movement, Me
Too focused on erecting change I want to see
Better
I want to see more
For I deserve much of it
And for too long they ignored.
-Aji Powell
Pilar says, "Elisa is so sweet she will give you diabetes."
Left, Elisa López, Pilar's life long best
friend.
Right, María Pilar Muñoz Bernal
Pilar, photographed on her birthday, with a new bag gifted by her mom.
María Pilar Muñoz Bernal, 19, started this semester at EUSA in Sevilla, Spain, and did not know what she wanted to do with her impending degree in Audio Video Production. After her first year, she says the university is easier than she expected, as long as you pay attention. Her classes have inspired her to pursue a career in directing. Pilar's classes have also disappointed her with the lack of female Spanish directors. She only knows of Pilar Miró, and would like more women to aspire to.
Pilar does not believe that being a woman will hold her back from her directing dreams. She believes if she isn't successful it is not because she is a woman, but because she was not good enough or did not work hard enough.
She does not know what she wants to direct and admits she has a lot to learn, "you need to learn the rules before you can break them, but I want to do it all...I want to be who they show in the classes when they teach: look she did something different and it worked."
Magnolia smiles for a selfie on a tennis court.
Magnolia McComish, 20, is a photographer from Connecticut.
I often show my photos to people with pride. I refer to myself as a photographer when talking about or showing my work, because I have been learning photography for almost 10 years and have been getting paid for my work for almost 4 years.
I show my photos to my friends, their parents, my teachers, my peers, and my subjects. I get a lot of positive feedback; people love a nice photo. Although, there is a compliment I get too often that never gets less insulting. “These are so good. You could be a professional.”
I wonder if they would say that to someone older, or to a man. I consider myself to be a professional, but when someone tells me I could be one what do they imagine a professional photographer to look like. What do I need to do to be seen as a professional?
As a woman, I receive well-intentioned comments like that often. It may make another person see their work as less valuable and worthy of less pay or recognition, but it makes me see my value more. I respond, "well I am a professional, people pay for my work." Why should young women feel the need to humble or justify their work, if it is good then brag about it like a man would.
The athletes I photograph have no problem boasting about the goal they made, so why shouldn't I boast about how I eternalized the moment.
When I look in the mirror I see a professional.
Dr. Kristen Nevious, 66, is Director of The Marlin Fitzwater Center for Communication at Franklin Pierce University. However, she wouldn’t have received this position without her husband, geographically speaking. She resigned from her tendered position at University of South Dakota, so he could take on a new position in Georgia, shortly after, in 2002, they moved again to New Hampshire. Two moves, two job changes, with two young children “could have been a career stopper, but it wasn’t,” Kristen explains.
Kristen was unpacking in her New Hampshire home the same day Franklin Pierce University has its dedication ceremony for the Marlin Fitzwater Center for Communications. After she read about it in the newspaper, she had no doubt she’d love to work in the center. She applied knowing it would not come without sacrifice. The two-hour commute would reduce time spent with her family, a major contrast to how she was brought up. Kristen is the eldest of five girls, who lived under the care of their stay-at-home mom.
In her time since being named Director, she’s noticed the number of women working in her program and on other media staffs has steadily increased. “What is really exciting is that I was in the depot a couple months ago, and…I was struck [because] it was all women in there, and that is a huge change from when I started.”
Kristen had a lead role in designing the Marlin Fitzwater Center’s programming when it opened, so it is expected that the most rewarding part is seeing students thrive from it. It has not been easy for her to balance home and work, but there is a pride Kristen carries because she was able to make it work.
Rosa cares for her sheep daily.
Rosa Patrícia Neves, 85, is an avó, or a traditional Portuguese grandmother. Rosa's life is in Vilela de Lajes, Portugal. She has worked in the fields there since childhood and has not stopped working long days since. Rosa devoted her life to her family, making any sacrifice necessary. Whether it is long days in the fields, caring for her sheep daily, or cooking and cleaning for her husband, there is nothing she won't do for her family. She is wife to Antonio Neves, mother to three, grandmother to seven, and great grandmother to four. Her hard work has not been in vain, she built the foundation for her family to succeed for generations.