Hello, *Shyada and first of all thank you for dedicating your time for this interview.

International Women's Week is coming up (3-9 of March) and so we devised a series of interviews for you, from deviantART's most wonderful women artists. They are as varied as you could imagine - photographers, stock artists, digital painters, web designers and more but they all share one common thing.
They are women.

<sub>"As many of us already have read, or know, women had to fight for their equal footing with the men, and in some parts of the world they are still very underprivileged. We as women still get paid less than men for same positions, a lot of us are undereducated, a number are being treated as commodity even slavery, forced into prostitution... We even have girls at extremely young age being forced into marriage with much older men, and what makes it even worse their bodies are underdeveloped for childbearing and many die during childbirth or suffer later from side-effects of it, such as weak bladder and lowering of the uterus, being outcasted by community and families. We still struggle to break the glass ceilings in the corporate world, and in many parts of the world women do not have right to vote, or even speak up.

So in order to change this, to give all those young women hope, and a drive to succeed we wanted to organise the event that will empower women, that will give women and girls strength to reach for their dreams, that extra push they need."</sub>

Today, we are superwomen. We are doctors, nurses, managers, secretaries and mothers.


Please tell us about yourself.

*Shyada: About me? Uh... *thinks of something interesting* Hm yeah ... I’m a woman, although a lot of people think that I’m male because of my second dA account ( *ginkgografix )
Never thought that I will do such kind of interview and I never know what I should tell about myself. If anybody wants to know something he or she should send a note or ask me .

What do you think are the biggest issues for women in the world today?

*Shyada: Hm. I think this depends on the place where you live. Here in Germany women get less paid than men, even if they have the same jobs. But in my opinion that’s only a small problem. There are other (more important) issues like suppression of women in some regions of the world.
But of course it’s always a matter of your education. For example I can’t imagine being totally controlled by the male members of my family or to hide my face because no men is allowed to see it. For others it’s their life and maybe they don’t know that there can be a different life...

Do you think there is an easy fix to this problem?

*Shyada: No, because these point of views are too old. People don’t like new things if they change something that was very comfortable for them for a long time. There was already a drama when women started wearing trousers or bikini and those are only clothes...

Who are the women you look up to or inspire you the most? (it can be on dA or in real life)

*Shyada: In my opinion you can or should look up to every woman that is able to have kids, a job and enough time for family and friends. Raised in Eastern Germany my mother, my aunts and their friends belong to this group of women. They managed everything no matter how hard it was.
But there are also woman like Angelina Jolie who earn a lot of money and try to help the poor without shouting to the world how generous they are.

And of course there are a lot more of those names you’ll never get to know because they do whatever they can without being ever mentioned in any newspaper.

We know deviantART is a wonderful place to grow as an artist in. Do you think deviantART has helped you realise things about yourself in the context of being a woman? Has it helped you grow as a woman?

*Shyada: Yes, although it’s kinda strange for me to think about it. I never was a very self confident person but somehow it changed through the people I got to know here. Somehow my point of view about myself changed and helped to feel better about the things I do - here on dA and in real life.

What message would you leave for the future women? (if you had a little sister, what would be the most important thing you would pass on to her?)

*Shyada: No matter what happens: always be yourself! There always will be times when you don’t like yourself, when you want to be someone else. But you can’t change who you are from one minute to the other. You need to grow and make your own experience. Listen to what other people have to tell you, but only care for those that are serious and helpful. If someone doesn’t like you the way you are, don’t change because of that person, only if you agree from the bottom of your heart. Every person should be accepted with bad and good habits and not only be loved for their perfect body, hair, eyes...

We're women from dawn to dusk. Can you tell us of an event that your being a woman hindered you in?

*Shyada: Dunno if there ever has been such a event. The only problem I once had with being a woman was when studying computer science. The rate of females there is just as high as of snow in a desert. Nothing happened that I can call worse but being one of 6 females that had to deal with 100 male computer science students wasn’t always easy
You often have to hear a lot of stupid things like “you should better cook” and similar things.

How would you suggest to fix that?

*Shyada: Can this be fixed? I guess it’s one of these things that will never change. Everybody learns (when being a child) that females have to play with their dolls and boys with their cars. As always it’s the education and as long as boys and girls will get a “different” education nothing will change.

What do you think is the most important thing people should realise about women?

*Shyada: That times changed and that women are no longer the persons that sit all day at home to cook and care for the children. In my opinion there are still too many guys that see a woman/their wife as a personal slave... Those guys should wake up and realize their old fashioned point of view. And woman are not only something fancy decoration, that should make a man feel better.

Again, thank you *Shyada for taking the time to let us get to know a woman's life from up close.

Some gems from *Shyada (and her second account *ginkgografix)'s galleries:

For more information about International Women's Week visit ^sbaraci or *int-womens-week.