Storytime with Rachel F Hundred

Celebrating International Women’s Day – let’s inspire inclusion!

It is International Women’s Day, and I thought in this article, I’d feature fictional women who have inspired inclusion for me in my life.

The Women of Star Trek

I think Star Trek as a franchise is a living historical documentation of how the inclusion of women has changed since the 1960s through to now.  And inclusion overall is one of the core principles of Star Trek that has transcended the franchise itself. 

If you are a Trekker, you very likely celebrate Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations.  As a mixed race young girl growing up in the late ‘80s and ‘90s that was a pretty inspirational concept given the societal view that a mixed race marriage was still something to be gawked at rather than celebrated at the time.   

I will say Doctor Crusher is my favourite female character in Trek and has been ever since her introduction in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994).  One of the first pieces of fanfiction I ever wrote was an incomplete Doctor Crusher centred story.  I still have the handwritten sheets in my Writing Snippets folder.  I was very happy to actually get to write and publish a fic last year when Crusher returned in the series Picard (my Q1 Big Moxie, The Gift).   

Smart, feisty, and unafraid to challenge Picard, Beverly Crusher as the Chief Medical Officer featured a woman in a significant position of leadership aboard the Enterprise.  She definitely inspired me to consider leadership possibilities even if medicine was never going to be a career option for me.

Colonel Samantha Carter

Or perhaps more accurately I should title this section Captain Samantha Carter as the character was introduced in Stargate SG1 (1997-2007) back in the pilot. 

I don’t think it is hyperbole to say that the character of Sam has inspired a whole generation of girls into STEM careers.  Sam was brilliant, an integral part of an otherwise all-male team, and she was also human and flawed. 

As a young woman in what was a very male dominated technology industry back in the day, I definitely related to Sam, and as time went on, I also related to the struggle Sam was shown in balancing building a career with a life beyond work (even if I hate the whole Pete Shanahan storyline).

Unsurprisingly, Sam is a character I’ve written a lot of fanfiction about – and while the majority is predominately Sam/Jack as they are my OTP in Stargate, I’ve also featured Sam in quite a few non-ship stories too.  My own favourite of the non-ship stories is Walk Beside Me – which was a Sam and Teyla story I wrote for a Women of the Gate ficathon and let me showcase Sam as a leader, a warrior and as her very smart self out in the field.

C.J. Cregg

I love The West Wing (1999-2006).

While I usually never say never, I will never write fanfiction about the show because there is a brilliance in its writing that I will never attempt.

I adore the character of C.J. Cregg.  Not only did the inimitable Claudia Jean go from being in command of the Press Room as the White House’s Press Secretary to being the Chief of Staff for the President, but like all the characters in the show she was imagined as a very real human being who made mistakes yet who was trying their best.

The inspiring thing about C.J. for me was again, she was a woman holding her own in a very male environment and leading in her field of expertise.  There is just a fantastic scene between her and Josh Lyman in the early series where Josh has been engaging people on the internet and she takes him to task which is beautiful to watch.

In conclusion

Fictional inclusion promotes the idea and belief that inclusion is possible.  It gives hope to people growing up in perhaps not the most inclusive society that they can achieve their hopes and dreams; become leaders and experts in their desired fields. 

I challenge myself to write believable human characters who can also inspire that idea of inclusion; challenging my own biases and societal programming while doing so, especially when tackling romantic tropes.  Sometimes I achieve that; sometimes I fail; I always commit to learning. 

Of course, fiction is fiction. 

In the real world, I have had the blessing of being supported by several fantastic women who have helped me grow and develop as a writer, given me platforms to post my writing, or simply been great cheerleaders.  And I have been incredibly blessed in my professional career with inspirational female mentors, managers and leaders who have embodied the adage of women supporting women in the workplace.  I hope I too embody that and inspire inclusion in turn.