Tag: women with PhDs

OK, not technically organizational history, but I could not resist 😉

It makes perfect sense that Princess Leia should have a PhD – but we need more female academics

When Princess Leia – older, wiser and tougher than ever – returned to the big screen two years ago in the latest Star Wars instalment, The Force Awakens, fans around the globe cheered.

Played with great wit and charisma by the late Carrie Fisher, the fictional Leia – known variously as princess, senator and general – is leader of first the Rebel Alliance, then the Resistance, fighting the monolithic forces of oppression that threaten her galaxy.

But when fans learned that Leia might have a PhD, thanks to a throwaway remark made by creator George Lucas on a 2004 DVD commentary that resurfaced when I tweeted about it recently, adoration for the Women’s March poster girl exploded online and in the press.

The Hollywood Reporter said fans were “shocked, but delighted” at the news, and Teen Vogue celebrated Leia as “a genius who somehow managed to get a PhD at age 19”. Even Mark Hamill, Fisher’s onscreen twin, Luke Skywalker, was “freaking out” about the story.

To read the full story, go to The Conversation.