Watch: Her Way - Overcoming Feminine Stereotypes

“Her Way” illustrates how we all have the ability to be and achieve more if assumptions and stereotypes are ignored. the film tells the stories of three women who have chosen to ignore stereotypes as they chart unique life paths—a single mother and member of the first all-female firefighting team in South Africa; a Chinese-born structural engineer and trail runner in New Zealand; and a delivery nurse and mother of four with a love for America’s National Parks.

THE STARS OF “HER WAY” ARE: Born in the small town of Beaufort West, South Africa, Vuyiseka Arendse began volunteering as a firefighter when she was 19. Now 26, the single mother and family breadwinner works for the NCC in Cape Town as a member of the Juliet Crew, the first-ever all-female firefighting team in the country, protecting local landmarks from wildfires in the Western Cape region. Chinese-born Nancy Jiang moved with her family from Ma’an Shan to Auckland, New Zealand when she was five. She studied structural engineering and today is the only female engineer in her firm. Small in stature and needing to prove herself in the workplace, she found her release through a love of trail running in the mountains above Queenstown, despite having been told as a kid that “Chinese people do not run.” A caregiver at heart, Melody Buck Forsyth is a mother of four and a delivery nurse. In 2015, she gave birth to her daughter, Ruby, who was born with Down Syndrome. Despite “sometimes getting looks on the trail” because she might not fit the hiker stereotype, the outdoors has served as an escape for Melody and her family, where they connect and decompress. Credits Directed by Caroline Brouckaert and Kirsten Gerber Executive producers Loïc Bailliard, Sofia Ahnebrink, and Greg Fell Produced by Kirsten Gerber Edited by Andrew King and Caroline Brouckaert.