Women’s History Month: Astronauts

Written by GISSV's DEI Committee

The movie “The Right Stuff,” which is about the first astronaut selection process in the 1960s, inadvertently highlights the male-dominated world of space and STEM in that era. That’s because 100% of the early recruits for the space program were former military pilots. At the inception of the program there were no women military pilots. Hence, women were structurally excluded. These men were chosen not only because they were the best test military pilots. They also needed characteristics that best represented an American Hero. 

This is still true today, however, America forges a different hero. Since Sally Ride (1st female astronaut and would later come out as a member of the LGBTQ+ community) and Mae Jemison (1st female person of color astronaut), NASA has been making efforts to diversify their astronaut fleet. In fact last April 2022, half of the four person crew who lived in the International Space Station were women - NASA Jessica Watkins and Samantha Cristoforetti.

Sidenote: One of the sidewalk plaques commemorating LGBTQ pioneers in the Castro district is dedicated to her. (Near the northeast corner of Castro and Market)

For more information visit:

• https://www.nasa.gov/women

• Plenty of children’s books on Sally Ride, Mae Jemison, and Katherine Johnson.

• Why Sally Ride Waited Until Her Death to Tell the World She Was Gay

• https://womenshistorymonth.gov/

The DEI/DRIN parent group welcomes article contributions from the GISSV community related to Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) or Diversität, Repräsentation, Inklusion, Normkritik (DRIN) activities on campus.

Join us at our next monthly meeting on March 14! Every second Tuesday of each month. Both German and English speakers are welcome.

Click here to join the meeting

Questions? Contributions? Email dei-parents@gissv.org.

Photo by NASA.gov