Against The Odds — (www.NRGen.com/against_the_odds)
By Darren
A website that encourages young women to get into the fields of science, technology and entrepreneurship debuted on the Internet this October. "Against the Odds" attempts to provide girls with "inspiring women" role models and encourages them to look for their own. The purpose is to get more young women into fields that are traditionally "male" careers and help them to find success.
Besides a lack of visual attraction,
the site, which is still being worked on, is very appealing in terms of content.
It offers games, polls, chats and is soon to have contests with prizes from
such companies as Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft and the Royal Bank of Canada. You
can also purchase a documentary on this issue. The site highlights the achievements
of three women from diverse backgrounds that overcame incredible odds to reach
success. It was refreshing to see a site that encouraged women instead of one
full of statements blaming men and male-bashing. It concentrated more on the
positive possibilities that young women can achieve. There is a section on the
site called Inspiring Women that introduces successful women and describes their
accomplishments. The section was short, offering only three role models so far.
However it does give young women the chance to share their own inspiration and
maybe have a short biography posted on the site. 
Although the Against the Odds web site has a good cause and some interesting and fun features (like the featured game "Who Wants To Be An Entrepreneur?") it is still lacking a lot of information. When I looked for information within the site about where to learn more about young women pursuing a career in science, for example, I could only find links to other websites and an offer to sell a documentary. Hopefully when the unfinished site is updated from its current "review" form it will offer more.
Another site similar to Against the Odds. Distinguished Women of the Past and Present, found at www.DistinguishedWomen.com, was created by Danuta Bois in hopes of opening people’s eyes to the great accomplishments of women throughout history. She aims to provide information that is not being taught in schools and is overlooked in history books. The List of women’s biographies seems endless and far exceeds expectation. Listed there are the biographies of women with great success in almost every field. Fields such as art, law, education, astronomy, journalism and many more all have a list of women that significantly contributed to that field. The women listed are from counties all over the world including Germany, China, France, USA, Canada, Australia, Nigeria and Great Britain. I found that even though the site was less visually attractive than Against the Odds, it was much more interesting. The site also contains a large number of links to choose from such as "Gifts of Speech: Women’s Speeches from Around the World" a site that posts famous and great speeches from women around the world talking on different subjects. You can also reach Gifts of Speech on the Internet at http://gos.sbc.edu.
