The Article below was published in Vol. 135, Issue 3 of the Lake Forest College Stentor on November 8, 2019
By Maryam Javed ‘21
Opinions Editor
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, more commonly known as NASA, recently had an all-female spacewalk on October 18, 2019, which was an extremely monumental moment in the organization’s 61-year history.
This was the first all-female spacewalk NASA conducted in over five decades of spacewalks. Astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Mier spent more than seven hours outside the International Space Station to replace a failed power controller for NASA’s laboratory. Koch and Mier were even congratulated by President Donald Trump for their great achievement. The spacewalk was originally planned during Women’s History Month, seven months prior, but due to the lack of appropriate sizes of spacesuits for the female astronauts, the mission was postponed.
Koch and Mier revealed that they were not the first women in history to pursue an all-female spacewalk, yet I believe that their mission is a huge step forward for women’s rights and sets a precedent for more women in the United States to venture into space and pursue more careers at NASA and in the fields of aeronautics and aerospace research.
When NASA was first founded in 1958, it was an organization dominated by males. It took decades for NASA to finally accept female astronauts into the agency. In order to join the program, an individual must possess a bachelor’s degree in a science, technology, or math (STEM) areas of study. They are also recommended to have a master’s or doctoral degree and are required to have 1,000 hours or more of training in a jet aircraft.
Women only make up a small percentage of STEM careers. Many of these requirements set forth by the agency made it hard for women to enter the field in the past due to gender stereotypes and made it even more difficult for women of color. As the years went by, more women started to enter the field, including minorities. Powerful and intelligent women like Koch and Mier play a huge role in encouraging more women to enter such challenging and rewarding careers.
It took considerably longer for women to enter agencies like NASA because of the lack of opportunities they possessed and the deep-rooted gender discrimination in society. Many individuals believed that women lacked the abilities to succeed in the field and held biases that their biological differences from men prevented them from performing effectively.
I believe that today, gender disparity within the STEM field remains. More specifically, gender disparities exist in the fields of aeronautics and aerospace research. However, more women are becoming involved than ever before due to the increase of encouragement for women to enter these types of careers. A lot of women in the past and even today were stopped from entering these fields since their abilities and general intelligence were doubted. Men were given higher preference than women. But now, times are changing. Progress is finally being made. Women have so many examples and role models to look up to in this field and should never let anyone stop them from following their dreams.
Maryam Javed can be reached at javedm@mx.lakeforest.edu
