staticonthesignal: profeminist: “MAKERS features NASA’s first female military scientist

staticonthesignal:

profeminist:

“MAKERS features NASA’s first female military scientist and space shuttle commander, Cady Coleman in their MAKERS Monday newsletter. Get to know her and how she became fascinated with space exploration!”

As seen on the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media  Facebook page  

Watch the video on the MAKERS site 

Just wondering, how many male shuttle commanders can anyone name? Hell, how many astronauts after Apollo 13 can ANYONE name? I’m a male, and I can only remember Sally Ride and Scott Kelly. Sally Ride has got to be the most famous shuttle astronaut simply because she was the first woman. I only know Scott Kelly because he JUST spent a year in space and that ended VERY recently. Oh and there’s Chris Hatfield who got famous from a viral video. I’m someone who follows space VERY closely compared to most people. But go ahead, let me hear about how NASA needs feminism.

Hey Drew,

I think we should be looking at the bigger picture here. The first time a female commanded the space shuttle was in 1999, 18 years after the first flight of the space shuttle. On the 95th flight Eileen Collins took the reigns of mission STS-93. She also commanded mission STS-95 in 2005. After her only Pamela Melroy comandeered another space shuttle mission in 2007. So of all 135 missions, 3 were commanded by a woman.

Those are pretty bad numbers. For astronauts overall it is not much better. 60 were women, out of a total 537 space travellers.

Spaceflight, including NASA needs feminism. I think we all need feminism. The equality of men and women will serve society better. Everyone can take their place where they want to be, everyone can contribute in the best way they see fit. This is not a matter of law, this about how society views men and women. For a long time an astronaut was a man. Even today, space engineers and scientist are seen as male. We have to turn that around, there should be no bias against female engineers and astronauts. It should not be special for a girl to persue a career in space.

NASA, a great organisation, is at the forefront of equality in space. The latest astronaut corps had a 50/50 gender distribution. There are many female leaders within NASA. In 2012 20% of the NASA engineers were women. These numbers are a big improvement on the past, but there is still a long road ahead before equal representation is reached. And that’s why I think NASA still needs feminism.

Thanks for reading!
Women-in-Space