8 Interesting Global Facts for Women’s Day

In 1975, an international tradition was started by the United Nations (UN) to celebrate women’s accomplishments across the world. Today, at PTIGlobal, we take the opportunity to celebrate the contributions of our female workforce. They are extraordinary team members and among our top performers. Not only is our company a woman-owned enterprise but it is also home to a high number of female team members.

Today, we would like to talk about 8 interesting global facts with respect to women: 

• Have you ever wondered what women were called between the 5^th – 11^th century? Old English used three words to refer to an adult female, “wiman”, “wimman”, and “wifman” (plural wifmen). The noun “woman” is a compound derived from Old English wiman, the alteration of wifman. Wifman was a compound of wif which stands for wife and man, which is understood as the word for a male human, but also more generically as a human being.¹
• Emily Wilson is the first woman to translate Homer’s ‘Odyssey’ into English. Approximately 60 versions have been translated prior to her publication and the differences between those translations shows just how intricate and complex good translation really is. ²
• Who doesn’t love Greek mythology?  We thought this little fact was especially interesting as it shows just how important women are in society. The first deity to be born after Chaos (the first element to exist) was a woman named Gaia, or Mother Earth. ³
• If you know a lot of Marys, then here is the likely reason for this one. According to the Social Security Administration, “Mary” was the most popular name given to females for a 100-year period in the US, between1917-2016.The name outranked the runner-up by more than a factor of 2.⁴
• Khertek Amyrbitovna Anchimaa-Toka was the first non-hereditary female head of state in the modern world, who between1940–44 was the Chairwoman of Little Khural of the Tuvan People’s Republic (presently, the territory corresponding to that of Tannu Tuva is the Tuva Republic within the Russian Federation). ⁵
• Archeology and Egyptology are fascinating for sure. Some of us are so drawn to the mysterious and ancient that we try to explain and study the roots of humanity and human life millennia ago. The earliest woman whose name is known through archaeology is Neithhotep (c. 3200 BCE), the wife of Narmer and the first queen of ancient Egypt. ⁶
• Most people are aware of Albert Einstein, a brilliant physicist who discovered the Theory of Relativity, but did you know that Marilyn Vos Savant had one of the highest IQ scores in recorded history (IQ – 228)? While the Guinness Book of World Records stopped tracking this particular category, there is an indication that Marilyn’s IQ based on the Stanford Binet test is one of the top three recorded in history.⁷
• This may already be clear to you, but have you ever wondered why females commonly don’t perform backflips from buildings to impress their peers? The high production of estrogen during puberty in girls’ brains generally speeds up their maturity by two years in comparison to boys.⁸

• “Origin and meaning of woman by Online Etymology Dictionary.” Online Etymology Dictionary. 2018. https://www.etymonline.com/word/woman
• “The First Woman to Translate the ‘Odyssey’ Into English.” The New York Times Magazine. November 2^nd, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/02/magazine/the-first-woman-to-translate-the-odyssey-into-english.html
• Bettini, Maurizio. Women and Weasels: Mythologies of Birth in Ancient Greece and Rome. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. 2013.
• “Top Names Over the Last 100 Years.”Social Security. March 2017 https://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/decades/century.html
• “Khertek Anchimaa-Toka – Wikipedia.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.Μarch, 2^nd, 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khertek_Anchimaa-Toka
• Tyldesley, Chronicle of the Queens of Egypt, 2006, Thames & Hudson.
• “Marilyn vos Savant – Wikipedia.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. February, 28^th, 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_vos_Savant
• Brizendine, Louann. The Female Brain. New York: Broadway Books. 2006.