Women of the Apollo Program

Last month was the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11's historic moon landing. Watching the footage of of the landing makes it look like the Apollo program was men-only. But it was more complicated than that.

As Echidne points out:

But the absence of women astronauts in the program has a much more concrete reason: They were excluded from it. Books have been written about that: Margaret A. Weitekamp's Right Stuff, Wrong Sex and Stephanie Nolen's Promised The Moon.

And there were women involved with the project itself as described by Robyn C. Friend in The Women of Apollo. You can hear one of the original engineers, Ann Dixon[sic], speak about her experiences here:

Ann Dickson says she was "convinced that someday she was going to be an astronaut." Unfortunately that didn't happen, in part because she didn't have 600 hours of flying time.*

Ann Dixon wasn't alone in the Apollo program as this 1969 AP article explains:

Frances "Poppy" Northcutt, for example, is a 25-year-old Dayton, Tex., native who is a member of the flight dynamics support staff in mission control at the Manned Spacecraft Center. The tall, blonde mathematician is one of the first women to serve in an operational support role in mission control.
"There's less discrimination against women here than in any of the professional areas," she said.

The article goes on to mention Larue Burbank, designer of the visual displays used for real-time monitoring of spacecraft, and Dorothy Lee, an engineer who worked on the re-entry heat shields.

In a 1999 interview, Lee recalled being recruited by NASA (pdf):

... math was very easy for me just happened to be the easiest subject, and that's the reason I majored in math. Then when we were recruited - I say "we." There were several girls - I was from Randlph-Macon [Woman’s College, Lynchburg, Virginia]—who went to work for NACA at Langley [Research Center, Hampton, Virginia], and again I was put in the best division there. It was called PARD, Pilotless Aircraft Research Division. We had the exciting opportunities to launch vehicles, to test different configurations, and how those configurations would [ultimately design] spacecraft by virtue of the shape of the nose. We went from cones to blunt bodies. You see today your different vehicles are all blunt bodies. So I was right there and enjoyed it. It was fun.
[. . .]
Of course, today, NASA recruits all over the country, but back in 1948, which is when I graduated from college, and there were not many gals, we were hired as "computers." Computers didn't exist, you understand. We had calculators. They gave us civil service exams, and I was fortunate enough to pass the exam at a couple of grades higher than I was hired in, so I got raises.

But the thing that I would like to tell has something to do with Dr. [Maxime A.] Faget. Working as a computer, [later] we were classified as mathematicians. One day my project was to solve a triple integral for an engineer, so it didn't require using my calculator. I could just do it at my desk. Max's secretary was going to get married, and so I was asked to be his secretary for two weeks while she was on her honeymoon. [. . .] I would answer the phone, distribute the mail, and work my triple integral. I did this for two weeks. [. . .]
This Friday, the end of my two weeks, Max said, "Dottie, how would you like to work for me all the time?"
I thought he was being funny, because I don't type, and I knew that this was the last day and Shirley was returning Monday. I said, "Sure," in a very flip way. He gets up, goes downstairs to talk to the division chief, and he returns and he says, "Dottie, you start working for me Monday."
Well, I looked at him like, "All right," you know. So they found me a desk, and I was put with some engineers who were beautiful and taught me how to be an engineer. I learned on the job.

But not surprisingly, it was tall blonde Poppy Northcutt** who got attention in the press, particularly when she turned out to be the only woman working at Mission Control during the Apollo 13 emergency. And also, not too surprisingly, the article uses almost as many column inches asking her social life as it does talking about her work with the Apollo computer systems .

So yes, there were indeed a number of women mathematicians and engineers who played important roles in the Apollo program, even if they weren't astronauts.

That doesn't mean that they earned everyone's respect, of course. See, for example, this 1987 article in Popular Mechanics about the Space Shuttle program in the aftermath of the Challenger disaster in which retired Mercury and Apollo 7 astronaut Wally Schirra complains about women scientists and non-test pilots in the program (who he seems to equate with engineers):

To get ready for a serious relaunch, NASA will have to go back to using qualified test pilots only for the foreseeable future. It is ludicrous at this early stage of space exploration to allow a virtual passenger on the Shuttle to become known as an "astronaut." Such people have little to offer at an engineering skull session. I was appalled to see young women scientists in mission control acting as liaison with the Shuttle mission commander. This is not a job for a "show-and-tell" celebrity.

After that gratuitous swipe at women scientists (gratuitous because it's unlikely that the men scientists in mission control were pilots either), Shirra goes on to explain how Sally Ride is totally NOT an "engineering test pilot", so she should totally stop talking about "flying" the Space Shuttle.

But now, 40 years after Apollo 11, there are indeed women test pilot-astronauts, such as Eileen Collins, Pamela Melroy, and Susan Still Kilrain, along with many scientist and engineer-mission specialists like Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, Karen Nyberg, Megan McArthur, Julie Payette, Stephanie Wilson, Joan Higginbotham, Kalpana Chawla (killed on Columbia), Sandra Magus, and many many others.

Now if only we'd finally return to the Moon, or head out to Mars . . .

Further reading and watching :

• Watch more Women of Apollo-related videos
• NASA Oral History: Dorothy B. Lee, engineer (pdf)
• NASA Oral History: Jeanne L. Crews, aeronautical engineer (pdf)
• Society of Women Engineers Oral History: Ivy Hooks, aerospace engineer
• Houston Public Library Oral History: Francis Miriam "Poppy" Northcutt, "computeress"
  
• Official Site: The Women of Apollo
• Historiann "Feminism and whig history" (via Academic Ecology)
• Paul Campos "And the stars look very different today" (be sure to read the comments)

* In looking for info about women in aviation I learned that in 1979 (10 years after Apollo 11) only 110 of 45,000 airline pilots were women. Even women who might otherwise be qualified for the astronaut program would likely have a hard time getting enough hours in the air to qualify.

** And cutely they named "Crater Poppy" on the moon after her. Later Northcutt entered politics, helping organize the 1977 National Women's Conference in Houston (watch the excellent Sisters of '77 documentary to get a sense of the historical importance of that event), and got her law degree.

Photo: "In 1959, Langley [Research Center] employed six women who were classified by NASA as "scientists." During the Apollo era, women made up 3 to 5 percent of the professional work force agency-wide. The percentage of African American professionals was significantly smaller, from 1.5 to 3 percent. These percentages rose slowly for both groups as the decade proceeded". Source: NASA

Tags: Women of Apollo, women astronauts, women in engineering

Women in Science Link Roundup: October 19 Edition

Here are some links I've been saving in my bookmarks, which explains why some are blog posts from a year ago. Yep, way behind in my reading.

About Women Scientists

The 2008 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics was awarded to Deborah S. Jin

There is a great post on MetaFilter about the women who worked as "computers" for Edward Pickering at the Havard Collge Observatory.

Martin Griffiths wrote for LabLit about 17th century natural philosopher Margaret Cavendish: The feminism, fiction, science and philosophy of Margaret Cavendish

Hsien-Hsien Lei at Eye on DNA lists the most powerful women in biotechnology and healthcare

Wired writes that South Korean astronaut Yi Soyeon is "crazy, sexy, cool"

As a counterpoint to Newsweek's "10 hottest nerds" - who all happen to be male and mostly in the field of genomics - Jonathan Eisen listed a bunch of women in genomics who they could have included on their list.

Life in College

Samia at 49 percent writes about networking as a science undergrad

Marina at Objectify This explained how the depiction of the female reproductive system in one of her classes helped her decide to stop being a biology major:
- I Was A Teenage Feminist
- Fly Sex... and I was a Twentysomething Feminist

ScienceWoman comments on an article by Linda Sax on how men and women experience college differently

The Gender Gap

Pat at Fairer Science has the scoop on the ultimate study on the effct of gender on wages: it looked at what happens to men who changes their gender to women and women who change their gender to men. They found "women who become men (known as FTMs) do significantly better than men who become women (MTFs). MTFs in the study earned, on average, 32% less after they transitioned from male to female, even after the authors controlled for factors like education levels. FTMs earned an average of 1.5% more."

At The Intersection Sheril Kirshenbaum talks about the gender gap in response to emailer "Gabe"

Geeky Mom writes about housework and the gender gap

The Boston Globe reports on a recent study that shows the effect of culture on girls' and womens' math achievement:

The study, to be published in next month's Notices of the American Mathematical Society, identifies women of extraordinary math ability by sifting through the winners of the world's most elite math competitions. It found that small nations that nurtured female mathematicians often produced more top competitors than far larger and wealthier nations.

Lise Eliot and Susan McGee Baily had an opinion piece in USA Today about the (lack of ) gender differences in kids' brains: "Gender segregation in schools isn't the answer" (via Fairer Science)

A study from UNM looked at why many girls avoid math:

Overall, however, parent support and expectations emerged as the top support in both subjects and genders for middle- and high-school students. Also powerful for younger girls were engaging teachers and positive experiences with them.

The study confirmed that old stereotypes die slowly. Both boys and girls perceived that teachers thought boys were stronger at math and science. For boys this represented a support, while for girls it acted as a barrier.

Cognitive Daily had an excellent three part post about recent studies from the journal Psychological Science in the Publish Interest on the "science of sex differences in science and mathematics"

• Why aren't there more women in science and math? Part 1
• Why aren't there more women in science and math? Part 2
• Why aren't there more women in science and math? Part 3
  

Chris at Mixing Memory reviews a paper that looked at wstereotype threat and women in math, science and engineering

Last October Dr. Confused, who has a doctorate in aerospace engineering, had a series of guest posts on Feministe about her experiences in science, the leaky pipeline, gender roles, sexism in everyday professional lives, and being a mom.

Miscellaneous Other Posts

Life v. 3.0 hosted the September Praxis Carnival on "scientific life". The October carnival was hosted by The Other 95%.

Elle, PhD. spots more gendered science kits for kids.

Virginia Gewin writes for NatureJobs about a possible upside to the "two-body problem" of academic couples

Sylvia Ann Hewlett in the Harvard Business Publishing blog: The Glass Cliff : Are women leaders often set up to fail?

In the The Independent's Career Planning section: "Women in science and engineering: Two successful women in science give their views on how to best break the glass ceiling". The two women are Emma Sanderson, director of "value added services" at BT and Anne Miller, "one of the world's most successful female inventors"

The BDPA Foundation writes about a recent survey of Fortune 1000 STEM executives that found "women, African Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields and that the result could hurt the nation as a whole." (via The Urban Scientist)

Omaha Science Examiner blogger Meg Marquardt writes about her own experience as a girl interested in science, and science communication.

A father was making a wild attempt to placate a gaggle of second grade girls. "What do you want to be when you grow up?" he asked. There was a litany of typical answers: a teacher, a mom, etc. But I stood up and proudly announced that I was going to be a scientist. The man gave me a stern look over his glasses and very firmly said, "Women ain't scientists." This was my first introduction to ignorance in science communication.

As part of the NatureJobs Podcast series:

The Source Event Part 7
Jan Bogg, Director of the Breaking Barriers Programme at the University of Liverpool, offers advice for women considering a career break, including how to stay in the loop while on maternity leave.

There's also an (old) discussion on the Naturejobs forum about the following questions:

1) Is the tendency for women to prefer people-oriented careers over science inherent or shaped by society?

2) Does anyone think “Title Nining” science is a good idea? Is it fair to punish research institutions if women just aren’t as interested in science as men are? Are there better ways of discouraging sexual discrimination, without discriminating against other successful scientists, both male and female?

Derek Low at In the Pipeline looks at a recent report in Science that followed up on the 1991 members of Yale's Molecular Biology and Biophysics PhD program. Out of 26 PhDs that year, only one of them currently has a tenured academic position.

DrugMonkey on self-perpetuating GoldOldBoys.

Green Gabbro hosted the Carnival of Feminists, and rounded up the science blog discussion about women, sexiness and the workplace.

And speaking of sexiness, Sociological Images posted a commercial featuring a woman scientist who makes a wonderful discovery - a fabulous bra!


Tags: women in science

Sally Ride, Climate Change and Science Education

On July 23 Dr. Sally Ride gave the keynote address at the "Earth Then, Earth Now: Our Changing Climate" conference for educators at the NOAA Science Center in Silver Spring, Maryland. The conference is part of the 25th anniversary celebration of Ride's first spaceflight.

Watch video from the conference. I particularly recommend the Q&A about climate change and science education with Ride and Dr. Kathy Sullivan, oceanographer and first American woman to walk in space (watch wmv).

While Ride was in Maryland, Ride spoke to a group of middle-school girls.

"I had parents who encouraged me to do whatever I wanted," Ride told a group of middle-schools girls at the Maryland Science Center last week.

"And I had two teachers - women science teachers - who told me that if you are good at science in seventh grade, you will be good at science in high school and you will be good at science in college.

"They told me, 'You don't get dumber as you get older.' They helped me have confidence."

And Ride is trying to pass on that confidence to middle school students: Sally Ride Science runs science festivals across the US, featuring hands-on activities for 5th-8th graders.

Tags: Sally Ride, Kathy Sullivan, climate change, science education

Lectures on Astronomy and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

The Astronomical Society of the Pacific has made a podcast of the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures, including several by women scientists:

• Dr. Jill Tarter (SETI Institute): "The Allen Telescope Array: The Newest Pitchfork for Exploring the Cosmic Haystack". Tarter is the "the leader of the main project looking for radio signals from alien civilizations", and the model for Jodie Foster's character in the movie Contact. Listen to the MP3.
• Dr. Janice Voss (NASA Ames Research Center): "A Scientist in Space" and "Searching for Earth-like Planets: NASA's Kepler Mission". Voss is an astronomer and astronaut who has flown on five space missions, and is currently the Science Director of NASA's Kepler Space Observatory. Listen to the MP3.
• Dr. Nathalie Cabrol (SETI Institute): "The Mars Exploration Rover Mission: A Year of Exploration and Discovery" Cabrol is a planetary geologist who specializes in "environments favorable to Life on Mars, their exploration (robotic and human) and the study of terrestrial analogues." Listen to the MP3.
  

(via Bad Astronomy)
Tags: astronomy, podcast, lectures

25 Years of American Women in Space

On June 18, 1983 the Space Shuttle Challenger was launched carrying astronaut Sally Ride, the first American woman astronaut. In honor of that anniversary, The Scotsman looks at the major milestones of women in space since Yuri Gagarin first orbited the Earth in 1961.

• 1963: Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman in space. She was selected for the Soviet space program based on politics, rather than having any piloting or scientific background. However, after her flight, she graduated as a cosmonaut engineer from the Zhokovsky Air Force Academy, and, in 1977 received her engineering doctorate degree.
• 1982 (note the almost 20-year gap): Svetlana Savitskaya became the second woman in space, and the first to take a space walk. Savitskaya was a test pilot and sports pilot.
• 1983: Sally Ride became the first American woman in space. Ride earned her doctorate in physics shortly before being accepted as an astronaut candidate. In 1989 she joined the faculty of the University of California at San Diego as a Professor of Physics and Director of the California Space Institute. She now runs her own company, Sally Ride Science, that focuses on introducing girls to science. SRS runs festivals, science camps, and other programs across the US.
• 1991: Helen Sharman became the first Brit in space, riding a Soviet Soyuz space capsule to the Mir space station. Sharman was a chemist for the Mars chocolate company who was selected after responding to an advertisement looking for astronauts "no experience required." She currently works as a broadcaster and lecturer in science education. Watch her lecture about her personal experiences in space and the science of spaceflight.
• 1992: Mae Jemison became the first black woman in space. Jemison's background was in medical research and engineering, and conducted a bone-cell experiment during the mission. After leaving NASA, she started her own company, the Jemison Group, that "researches, markets, and develops science and technology for daily life" and founded the Dorothy Jemison Foundation for Excellence which runs (ran?) science camps for teenagers. Her current business is the BioSentient corporation, a medical technology company. (Jemison was also the first real astronaut to appear on Star Trek.)
• 1995: Eileen Collins became the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle. Before joining NASA she was and Air Force aircraft commander and instructor pilot. She holds a masters degree in operations research and a masters degree in space systems management. In 2005 she commanded the Discovery shuttle mission - the first woman to hold that position. She retired from NASA in 2006.
  
• 2007: Biochemist Peggy Whitson became the first woman to command the International Space Station. She returned to Earth on April 21 of this year, breaking the American record for time spent in space.
  

Read the article for more.

For more information about Sally Ride, you can download a pdf version of her book Blastoff! about adventures in outer space, find out her answers to girls' questions, or join the 25th Anniversary Celebration at the "Earth Then, Earth Now: Our Changing Climate" conference at the NOAA Science Center in Sliver Spring, Maryland.

Tags: women astronauts, Sally Ride

Spring Cleaning

Now that May is over, I decided it was time to clean out some of the links I've been accumulating, but never got around to blogging. I hope you find some of them interesting!

Achievements and Awards

Jenn at Fairer Science reveals her Confessions of a Former Girl Scout Cookie Seller ...

[...] I started thinking about my cookie-selling days after I read an article about two 12 year-old Girl Scouts who recently stopped participating in the cookie sales (they sold magazines instead). Madison Vorva and Rhiannon Tomtishen did a research project on orangutans that was part of their Bronze Award project and “discovered the habitat of orangutans is being threatened by conversion of the land to the production of palm oil, an ingredient in Girl Scout Cookies.”

On April 30 Google awarded their Anita Borg Memorial Scholarships, in honor of the work of Dr. Anita Borg, "a computer scientist who dedicated her professional career to increasing the participation of women and other under-represented minorities in the field of technology". In the US, 23 "outstanding female leaders in technology" received $10,000 scholarships, and 32 finalists were awarded $1,000 scholarships. In Canada, four women were awarded $5,000 scholarships and 13 finalists were awarded $1,000 scholarships. Most of the winners have PhDs in computer science.

Meanwhile, the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology honored their "Women of Vision" awardees: Justine Cassell, professor, Northwestern University; Helen Greiner, co-founder and chairman, iRobot; and Susan Landau, distinguished engineer, Sun Microsystems.

Women's Voices for Change reports on a story about NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, first female commander of the international space station. How can I not like a story about high achievement being called "The Peggy Factor"?

Education

In February (yes, some of my links are dusty), Inside Higher Education wrote about a study that looked at "The Mentoring Gap for Women in Science" - particularly doctoral students in chemistry.

Julianne at Cosmic Variance writes about how Women's Lib is "killing the public school system" (not that she really thinks that):

Back in the day, women of brains, talent, and ambition had two acceptable career options: nursing, and teaching. If I had been born 50 years earlier, I would not have a PhD in astrophysics. Instead, I would probably have grown up to be a school teacher, just like my grandmother. It didn’t have to pay that well, since really, what would have my other options have been?

Ms.PhD takes on the article by Christina Hoff Sommers charmingly titled "Why can't a woman be more like a man?"

A study at Tel Aviv University found that both boys and girls (especially boys) do better in mixed sex classrooms.

Prof. Schlosser found that primary-school classrooms with a female majority showed increased academic success for both boys and girls, along with a notable improvement in subjects like science and math. In the middle schools, girls were found to have better academic achievement in English, languages and math. And in high school, the classrooms which had the best academic achievements overall were consistently those that had a higher proportion of girls enrolled.

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, a congressional panel has drafted a bill that would "promote the use of workshops “to increase awareness of implicit gender bias in grant review, hiring, tenure, promotion, and selection for other honors based on merit” in order to help increase the number of female science professors.

Sociological Images has a graph that shows the "education gap" in college graduation rates between men and women favored men until the cohort that was born in the mid- to late 1960s. And Stefanie Zvan looks at college enrollment rates from the 1940s to the present and finds that both women and men are entering college today at record levels - the rate of increase has just leveled off more for men than women.

Various and Sundry

At LabLit Stella Hill writes about "The next stage: What do you do when your funding dries up?"

Mackenzie at Ubuntu Linux Tips & Tricks ponders "The Girly and the Geeky: Mutually Exclusive?" Zuska has her own take with "Explaining (Away) Women Geeks"

drdrA at Blue Lab Coats writes about women and self-promotion - women lose when they are too modest about their achievements, and lose when they are seen as too boastful. So how do we win?

Petulant at Shakesville wrote about Woman Doing A "Man's Work". I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that a commenter claims that the trouble is women don't want to "dirty work" because of their high heels and manicures. Of course Shakesville commenters take her/him to task.

The New Scientist Short Sharp Science blog looked at a recent study that suggests that "people tend to think it is acceptable for men to get angry in the office, but not women".

Pamela Ronald of Tomorrow's Table talks about Housework and the Nobel Prize (via Hsien Lei)

April 24 was Girl's Day (Mädchen-Zukunftstag) in Germany, an event meant to introduce girls to "technical and technically oriented occupations". Google.de celebrated Girl's Day by changing their logo to show a girl doing mathematics. (via Google Blogoscoped).

Stephanie Gower writes for Inkling Magazine about earning science badges in Canadian Girl Guides.

Dr. Jekyll & Mrs. Hyde and Female Science Professor have some depressing stories about male faculty who aren't at all subtle about their sexism.

Scientific American writes about "How stereotyping yourself contributes to your succes (or failure)" and Pat at Fairer Science writes about how we can reduce stereotype threat.

drdrA wrote about a presentation by Stanford neurobiology professor Ben Barres at Harvard on "Some Reflections on the Dearth of Women and Science", with an accompanying webcast. Barres underwent a sex change from female to male 14 years ago, so he has a rare perspective on what it's like for both women and men in academic science.

Finally, in April there was a seminar at Harvard where Rosalind Chait Barnett of Brandeis and Steven Rhoads of the University of Virgina talked about "What Larry Summers and nancy Hopkins Didn't Say: Women in Science".

Tags: women in science, education, women in engineering

First Korean Astronaut Yi So-yeon

South Korea's first astronaut is going to be Yi So-yeon (also written Lee Soyeon), a biomechanical engineer. Yi will be just shy of 30 when she rides the Space Shuttle Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station, replacing Sally Ride as the youngest astronaut to date. In fact, according to Wikipedia, her doctorate was conferred less than two weeks ago, on February 2.

Michael Hurt of SeoulGlow informally interviewed Yi in 2006 and early 2007, where she talks about what inspired her to become an astronaut:

First, when I watched sci-fi movies as a kid, there were always cool astronauts flying the spaceship. There was always one female scientist. Always exactly one female scientist. And that female scientist is always smart, and if something happens, she always explains everything well, and then... if all the men start fighting, she calms them all down ... There's always one like that. She's always thin, pretty, and always blonde. [. . .] Yeah, so watching these cool women back then, I thought, "Ahh! I want to be a cool scientist like that!" [English translation from the subtitles]

Hurt also asked her if she had any specific "hopes" as a woman:

From working at school as an engineer, there are some physically trying things, that men are better at doing . . . Working through things precisely, exactly, putting things together . . . women are good at things like that. Because there are things like that, I want to [show?] a side of women, that we also have great abilities. "Ahh, even though she's a woman, without whining or complaining, she can do a really good job!" That's my biggest goal . . . to show that to people. [English translation from the subtitles]

Watch part 2 of the interview, where she talks about training in Russia, the comments of "netizens" about her appearance (which she takes in good humor), and finishing her dissertation. Yi's enthusiasm seems a far cry from the macho astronaut stereotype. (There's supposed to be a part 3, but it doesn't look like it was ever posted).

Yi replaced male roboticist Ko San, who was removed after he "took reading material out of the center without permission in September and lent a book without authorization in February." Wow, strict.

Tags: Yi So-yeon, astronauts, International Space Station

The Romance of Space and the Space Shuttle Endeavor

Maybe I read too much science fiction in my formative years, but there's something about the idea of leaving Earth - even just to orbit - that I find very exciting. Watching the space shuttle take off makes my heart start beating a little bit faster.

The current shuttle mission, STS-118 on the Endeavor, is extra special because one of the mission specialists is elementary school teacher Barbara Morgan. In 1986 Morgan was the backup to Christa McAuliffe in the "Teachers in Space Program." In January 1986, the Challenger was launch with McAuliffe aboard. Of course, the Challenger and McAuliffe never made it to space. Now, almost 22 years later, Morgan has finally become the first teacher in space.

What I didn't realize was that Morgan is much more than just a teacher in space. She joined the astronaut program full time in 1998 and trained as a mission specialist. From her NASA biography:

Following the completion of two years of training and evaluation, she was assigned technical duties in the Astronaut Office Space Station Operations Branch. She then served in the Astronaut Office CAPCOM Branch, working in Mission Control as prime communicator with on-orbit crews. More recently, she served in the Robotics Branch of the Astronaut Office.

Despite her decade at NASA, she still considers herself a teacher. As she points out:

You know that question always kind of makes me laugh! People don’t ask the physician astronauts or the engineer astronauts or the chemists: “Are you still a chemist? Are you still a physician" or “Are you still an engineer?” Yes, I’m still a teacher and look forward to eventually going back in the classroom. I do know teaching is tough and challenging. And there’s a skill to it, just like everything else. You have to keep up with that. I’m going to need to sharpen my skills again, take some classes, and go observe a lot of my colleagues and work hard to get back into it to be able to do as good a job as I can.

I know this is going to sound corny, but Morgan's story makes me choke up a bit*. I don't know how she feels about it, but "finally going into space after 22 years" would be the high point of my life. Oh, well, maybe I'll be a space tourist someday . . .

Morgan won't be the only woman on board. Mission specialist and chemist Tracy Caldwell will also be on board the Endeavor. In a pre-flight interview, she explained what drew her to study science:

I had to learn how to be a scientist. But I had an interest in understanding how things worked. And when someone explained it to me, and better yet when they showed it to me and I could see things moving around, then the light bulb went on inside. And what I really liked about chemistry in particular was it answered questions like, why the sky was blue. I mean, it really answered it! It wasn’t just some fairy tale, nursery rhyme, it was the real thing. Why water boiled. I was really surprised to find out it didn’t have so much to do with temperature as I thought. Just all of these, all of these everyday things that you come in contact with, science answered. And better, chemistry made complete sense out of math! And I was not only not good at math. I was afraid of it and I told myself I wasn’t good at it because it just didn’t come natural. And I struggled with it probably more than I needed to. When I got into college and I started to get very involved in chemistry and taking classes I never knew existed when I was in high school about chemistry, I started to use math more. And when I learned things in calculus that were so strange, you know, as a concept, like well, who thought of this? And why do we use this? When I got to chemistry and started learning the physics of chemistry I actually started using that math to describe the properties of an atom. And I could picture an atom in my head and I, I knew what atoms did and I could see how the math explained what an atom did. It, it made so much more sense to me. And I really enjoyed that, just learning how things worked.

And that sums up a big part of the fun of science for me: making sense of the way the world works. Sometimes I wonder if initiatives to encourage girls to study engineering and science that emphasize "helping humanity" are just missing that point.

Anyway, now, four days into the Endeavor's mission, they've found the heat shield on the belly of the shuttle was damaged during launch. NASA is reporting that they don't believe repairs are necessary, but, even so, I'll be holding my breath when they land. My best wishes are being sent to Morgan, Caldwell and the rest of the Endeavor crew.

More:

• Space.com video of Barbara Morgan talking about being an Educator Astronaut.
• Barbara Morgan Preflight Interview 1 and Interview 2
  
• CNN video: After 22-year wait, teacher ready for space trip
• STS-118 Education Resources
  

* On some days, the photo montage during the opening credits of Enterprise gets to me in the same way, so maybe I'm just a bit of a sap.

Photo: From the official NASA mission page. The crew members of STS-118 pose for their official portrait. Pictured from the left are mission specialists Richard A. (Rick) Mastracchio, Barbara R. Morgan, Pilot Charles O. Hobaugh, Commander Scott J. Kelly and mission specialists Tracy E. Caldwell, Canadian Space Agency's Dafydd R. (Dave) Williams, and Alvin Drew Jr.

Tags: astronauts, Barbara Morgan, Tracy Caldwell, Endeavor

Joan E. Higginbotham wins Black Rose Award

Astronaut Joan E. Higginbotham will be presented the 2007 Black Rose Award on August 26 in Atlanta.

The Black Rose Award is considered the League of Black Women's highest honor. It's presented to individuals committed to advocating leadership opportunities for women of color in science, technology and public service.

According to her NASA profile, Higgenbotham has a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Southern Illinois University, and masters degrees in management and space systems from the Florida Institute of Technology. She has worked at NASA as an engineer on the space shuttle program since 1987, and was accepted as an astronaut candidate in 1996. Her first space mission was on the Space Shuttle Discovery in December 2006.

In her preflight interview, she spoke about her education and experiences at NASA. She acknowledges her family for supporting her and feels like she can give back to less fortunate kids.

It’s not so much that I think I’m a role model. It’s more of that I think I’ve been incredibly blessed as an individual, and I had wonderful parents and family and friends who just encouraged me to be the best that I could. I think that’s why I am the person I am today and where I am today. I just feel a sense of responsibility to do the same for people who are coming up. I think nowadays there are a lot of children who weren’t as blessed as I am. They don’t come from homes where families encourage them to do things. I think if I can maybe help them and encourage them to do whatever it is -- not necessarily become an astronaut -- just encourage them to do their best and expect nothing but the best from themselves, I think that I’m doing something good.

Read the whole interview for more about her background and role on the space shuttle mission.

Higginbotham also won the 2007 Women in Space Science Award from the Adler Planetarium in her hometown, Chicago.

Tags: Joan Higginbotham, astronauts, Black Rose Award

Sunday Video: Story Time with Young Science Authors

The program QUEST on public television station KQED in San Francisco did a segment on "Story Time with Young Science Authors." And they do mean young - these are 5-8 year olds from the KQED Reading Rainbow Young Writers and Illustrators Contest reading their science-themed contest entries. The video features Maanasa Rajaguru reading her story and talking about her goal of becoming an astronaut.

You can read Maanasa's full entry (pdf) and leave a comment on the QUEST blog.

Science Fashion - Why is always about the boobs?

Anyone who has worn a lab coat knows that they aren't particularly fashionable. That isn't really so important since they are meant to protect your clothing and your body from chemical spills and biological fluids. That's not to say they couldn't be designed better. Most of the lab coats I've worn have floopy sleeves at the wrists that are liable to get caught on something if you don't tape them up. Labs rarely carry many (if any) lab coats designed for shorter scientists, meaning that some (usually women) have to wear lab coats that are several sizes too big.

Despite their design deficiencies, I've never known anyone who complained that lab coats didn't show of their figure well enough. That's why I think it's a bit of a shame that Lab Lit (together with SciCult) chose to illustrate their potentially fun lab coat design competition "Stripping off the White Coat" with a drawing of two large- and pointy-breasted women. As one of the editors points out:

"The current design, which has been with us for nearly a century, is highly unflattering to both men and women," Rohn added. "And white is a disastrous colour for lab work, as every last little spill shows. Surely we can do better."

So why not include an illustration of a good-looking broad shouldered man, particularly since the majority of scientists are men?

(And of course one of the obvious reasons why lab coats are pretty shapeless is that they are designed to fit over your clothing, which may or may not be form fitting.)

It's not just lab coats that get the "better fitting means showing off the female body" treatment. On Monday MIT aero-astro professor Dava Newman reported that her group had developed a form-fitting space suit, dubbed the BioSuit. This is a significant improvement over bulky traditional spacesuits.

Newman's prototype suit is a revolutionary departure from the traditional model. Instead of using gas pressurization, which exerts a force on the astronaut's body to protect it from the vacuum of space, the suit relies on mechanical counter-pressure, which involves wrapping tight layers of material around the body. The trick is to make a suit that is skintight but stretches with the body, allowing freedom of movement.

Not only does the flexible design allow easier movement, but the suit can also be used for resistance to retain muscle mass in low gravity, and small punctures can be easily fixed without immediately returning to the space station or home base.

It's frustrating to me that once again some are choosing to focus on the female form, rather than the technical achievement. I was a bit dismayed that the SciFi.com technology email list chose to use the subject line "spacesuits for supermodels" for their article about the BioSuit (fortunately the actual SciFi.com article doesn't carry that whiff of sexism). A quick look at the blog posts on the news turns up references to "space bunnies," comparison photos of Seven-of-Nine and Barbarella, not to mention the juvenile boob comments at Gizmodo.

Is it any wonder that there are female scientists who don't feel like they are taken seriously?

The image is Newman modeling the BioSuit (click the image for slide show).
Tags: lab coats, space suits, fashion, women in science

Women in Science Friday Link Roundup

Articles and posts from the past week I didn't get around to blogging:

Harvard physicist Lisa Randall "enters the Seed Salon to discuss shape, magic tricks, and the definition of "see" with architect/designer" Chuck Hoberman.

Voice of America broadcast a program on the "Mercury 13." You can download the MP3 or read the transcript.

Afarensis links to a video interview with Dr. Louise Leakey on the Archaeology Channel about human evolution.

So Sioux Me explains how the Discovery Channel's Mythbusters is "a fantastic way to empower girls." Who says girls don't enjoy blowing stuff up?

Cybernoon.com of Bombay, India writes about three young women "from very economically disadvantaged backgrounds" who are pursuing engineering degrees, supported by the L'Oréal India Scholarship for Young Women in Science.

These are all the first ever engineers in their respective families! And they hope others follow in their footsteps. As [Scholarship recipient] Devika wisely says, “I have learnt from my own life that you can make it even without the finances, provided you develop your talents and have a goal you are aspiring toward. Parents must support their girls to study further, and not worry about where the money will come from because where there is a will, there is a way.”

Voice of America profiles two of Burkina Faso's professional women: government mediator Amina Ouedraogo, and Alice Tiendrebeogo, a founder and vice president of the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE). They are exceptions in a country where only one quarter of the girls complete primary school, and 80% never learn to read.

[Tiendrebeogo] recounts an experience at a summer science camp for teenage girls, which featured evening talks with women with successful careers in science.

"At the beginning of the camp, we asked the girls what they wanted to be when they grew up, and all their ideas were of traditional female professions, like primary school teachers or typists," she recalled. "By the end of the camp, the girls were more forward-thinking, Tiendrebeogo says. They said they wanted to be engineers, university professors, doctors.

Cary Tennis tackles the issue of the "two body problem" at Salon.com when a graduate student in analytical chemistry writes that his girlfriend is heading to Berkeley, while he is still finishing up grad school and just received an offer from a lab in Toronto. Tennis doesn't think it's so complicated:

Whose career has priority right now? I think hers does, since she has already accepted a position. Hers also does for her personally, since she is trying to reverse a gender-based legacy. That can be touchy for couples. Duh. Plus, this whole reversing a gender-based legacy thing is not foolproof: We find in reversing the mistakes of our parents that we make equal and opposite mistakes. But since she's made the first move, yours is, for now, the subordinate position. So deal with it.

The Boston Globe reports on the dilemma of Sophie Currier, who needs to pass National Board of Medical Examiners by August to start her medical residence. The problem? She is breastfeeding her 7-month-old daughter, but is unable to get extra break time during the 9 hour exam to express milk, since that is not considered a disability covered by the American with Disabilities Act. She is also not allowed to use the breast pump inside the testing room, and the whole situation is complicated by the fact that Currier is already being allowed extra time to take the exam for a disability.

Tara Bishop writes about "Dr. Mom: The Truth about the Mommy Track" for MIT Alumni News.

I wasn't completely comfortable quitting my job, so I told people that I was "taking a break." In fact, I was embarrassed to be wasting an undergraduate degree from MIT in chemical engineering and a medical degree from Cornell. Before my son was born, I read the "Opt-Out Revolution" in the New York Times and saw a Sixty Minutes segment about highly educated and successful women who gave up their work to be home with their kids. At the time, I vowed never to sacrifice my career.

Five years later, I found myself doing exactly that. The first few weeks at home were a series of adjustments. I went to the playground and tried to become friends with other stay-at-home moms. I beamed as my son played his mini guitar better than all the other kids in his music class. I loved that I once again had time to read novels.

But I was also very, very bored.

Bishop ultimately decided she made the right choice. She is planning to go back to work when her sons are in preschool.

IT Pro reports on the UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology seminar last week.

Dr Wendy Faulkner of the University of Edinburgh told attendees that women workers are turned away from the sector because of poor work-life balance and a male dominated culture. "The sector is more comfortable to men than women," she said.

The LaCrosse (Wisconsin) Tribune takes a look at the some myths in the battle of the sexes, including "Women aren’t as good at science and math".

“(Women) don’t have good role models,” Sudhakaran said. “I see girls when I teach general education courses who are so talented, so smart, and I always ask them why they didn’t go for science and engineering because they’re so good at it. They say, �my parents told me that science is not for girls.’

Articles about summer science programs for girls:

NASA Ames Research Center in California is collaborating with the Girl Scouts of the San Francisco Bay Area for the "Launch into Technology Program." Fifty high school-aged Girl Scouts will have two week-long programs, one on robotics, and one on aeronautics. ABC7 News has a video segment on the program.

The University of St. Thomas in Minnesota has a program after which "seventh-grade girls from throughout Minnesota will have built and flown their own radio-controlled model airplanes." The airplanes are built completely from scratch, based on information the girls learn in classes on plastics, electricity, machining, computer-aided design, assembly, Web design, chemistry, physics, engineering and robotics. There are four one-week sessions of the STEPS program in July.

The Bridgwater (UK) Mercury writes about the WISE (Women Into Science and Engineering) project at Robert Blake Science College that "gave girls from four Somerset schools the chance to release their inner Einsteins." The girls each constructed a "fully functioning perfume emitting, aromatherapy fan," which seem like a bizarre choice of engineering projects to me. Hopefully the girls enjoyed it.

Tags: women in science, women in engineering, Lisa Randall, Mercury 13, Louise Leakey, Mythbusters, India Scholarship for Young Women in Science, Alice Tiendrebeogo, two-body problem, mommy track, summer camp, science for girls

Honoring The Mercury 13

In the early 1960s the United States was racing the Soviet Union to get into space. It what must have seemed a progressive move at the time, NASA included thirteen female pilots in its training program. This was not simply a publicity stunt - the women passed the same physical tests as the men. As the Washington Post reports:

The women endured, and passed, the same tests as the better-known "Mercury 7" male astronauts: suffering through sensory deprivation and tests gauging how long they could keep body parts submerged in near-freezing water.

However, just days before the women were to leave for space simulator training, NASA unceremoniously cut them from the program (they were fired by brief telegram - classy).

"I think we all wanted to punch somebody," said Beatrice "B" Steadman, 80, one of the 13.

Why were they cut? Because they were women.

George Low, director of space missions in the 1960s, explained at the time that the women lacked military test pilot experience (they could not be test pilots back then); that letting them use the training equipment would cut down on the men's time; and that enough men were waiting for astronaut slots.

Stephanie Nolen's excellent 2002 article for the Globe and Mail describes how Jerry Cobb "the face of the women-in-space program" refused to take her dismissal lying down. She recruited fellow pilot - and wife of a senator - Janey Hart to "bang on doors in Washington." Finally, in July of 1962, they were allowed to testify before a Congressional panel.

[Cobb] outlined the medical and scientific reasons why it made sense to use women, then appealed to national pride: "We have seen the reflected pride of the entire free world in the accomplishments of U.S. Astronauts Shepard, Grissom, Glenn and Carpenter. All Americans, and certainly all pilots salute them. Now we who aspire to be women astronauts ask for the opportunity to bring glory to our nation by an American woman becoming first in all the world to make a space flight."

The next speaker was introduced as "Mrs. Philip Hart, an excellent wife and mother as well as a pilot." Poised and calm, she spoke lightly but with great seriousness. "It is inconceivable to me that the world of outer space should be restricted to men only, like some sort of stag club." But Ms. Hart knew she could not win this case arguing discrimination; she knew how to play politics.

One of the star witnesses was Jacqueline "Jackie" Cochran, an experienced jet pilot who had lead the Women's Air Force Service Pilots (WASPs) during World War II. Cobb and Hart had expected her to be supportive:

Instead, she arranged her papers, listed off her hundreds of qualifications, and bluntly made her point: "I do not believe there has been any intentional or actual discrimination against women in the astronaut program to date." Since there was no pressing need for more astronauts, "and there is no shortage of well-trained and long-experienced male pilots," there was no need for women.

Ms. Cochran had testified to Congress before: In 1943 she defended her WASPs, when critics alleged, among other things, that it was a waste to train them to fly since they just went off and got married anyhow. But now she invoked the exact argument she had once fought: "You are going to have to, of necessity, waste a great deal of money when you take a large group of women in, because you lose them through marriage."

A few committee members bridled, noting that this argument would bar women from all the professions - and that all the male astronauts were married with children. "They didn't have [the babies]," Ms. Cochran snapped back.

As the committee prepared to break up for the day, she leaned forward with one last comment. "Even if we are second in getting a woman into the new environment," said the greatest female pilot in the country to the members of Congress, "it's better than to take a chance on having women fall flat on their faces."

The next day it got worse, with astronaut and future senator John Glenn playing to the committee's prejudices.

Then, Col. Glenn smoothly assured the committee that NASA had plenty of astronauts; they weren't looking for more. "[But] if we can find any women that demonstrate that they have better qualification for going into a program that we have going into that program, we would welcome them with open arms," Col. Glenn added.

The committee members dissolved in laughter, and he played it up. "For the purpose of my going home this afternoon, I think that should be stricken from the record." [emphasis added]

Using that standard - that women must surpass men with their qualifications to be included - it is no surprise that NASA excluded women from astronaut training until 1978. While astronauts are not necessarily scientists or engineers (although many today are), the experiences of the Mercury 13 pilots were mirrored in the male-dominated fields of science and engineering.

After being cut from the program, most of the women continued flying, if not professionally then for their own pleasure.

• Geraldine "Jerrie" Cobb became a missionary pilot in the Amazon jungles, and "holds world records for speed, altitude and distance that were set in the 1950's."
• Bernice "B" Steadman remains active in aviation organizations, and has served as President of the International Women's Air and Space Museum
• Jane "Janey" Briggs Hart campaigned with Jerry Cobb for women to be included in the astronaut training program
  
• Geraldine "Jerri" Sloan Truhill returned to test piloting with husband Joe Truhill at Texas Instruments. After she and the rest of the Mercury 13 were “scuppered by NASA” (as she puts it), she resolved to speak out on radio programs and in the press whenever she witnessed NASA favoring white men over others." She has served as vice president of Air Freighters International and Air Services Inc. "
• Rhea Allison Hurrle Woltman stopped flying professionally, but still flies as a hobby.
• Sarah Lee Gorelick Ratley was not only a pilot, but had a B.S. in mathematics, with minors in physics and chemistry. Ratley eventually became an accountant and continues flying for fun.
• Marion Dietrich was a writer and reporter for the Oakland Tribune, in addition to piloting in her spare time. She died of cancer in 1974.
• Jan Dietrich, Marion's identical twin, was a professional pilot, and was one of the first women in the U.S. "to obtain the highest FAA license, the Airline Transport Pilot License." She currently lives near San Francisco.
  
• Myrtle "K" Thompson Cagle continued flying, both as an Instructor and with the Civil Air Patrol.
• Irene Leverton continued to fly, and is currently owns a consulting business, Aviation Resource Management, in Arizona.
• Gene Nora Stumbough Jessen became a sales demonstration pilot for Beechcraft aircraft and, with her husband, became a Beechcraft dealer. She has served on the Boise Aircraft Commission and as president of the international women's flying group, the Ninety-Nines.
  
• Jean Hixson went to work at the Flight Simulator Techniques branch of the USAF Reserve at Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio. She retired from the Air Force Reserves in 1982 as a full colonel. She died of cancer in 1984.
• Mary Wallace "Wally" Funk continued flying, becoming the first female investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board in Washington, DC. eventually got the chance to fly the C. S. T. Apollo Static Space Simulator at Edwards Air Force Base. In 2004 at age 64, she was announced as the first pilot of the Solaris X experimental space craft, Interorbital Systems' entry in the X-Prize competition. Read Funk's full biography on the Ninety-Nines web sit.
  

On Saturday, all thirteen will receive honorary doctorates from the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh. On Friday, May 11, surviving members will speak about the experiences and answer questions. It's open to the public, so if you are in or near Oshkosh, you should check it out. If you aren't, you can still read the commemorative booklet (pdf) and download the poster (pdf).

Rhea Woltman, another member of the 13, said: "I'd rather be flying the spaceship, but that didn't happen. This is next best. I'll take it."

More Reading:

• The official history at NASA: Lovelace's Woman in Space Program and Women Who Read for the Stars
• The Mercury 13 Story by Wally Funk, on The Ninety-Nines web site
• NPR program, The Mercury 13: Training U.S. Women for Space
• ETA: Jerri Truhill was interviewed on the May 11 episode of NPR's Morning Edition
  

. .

Photo: Jerrie Cobb "testing the Gimbal Rig in the Altitude Wind Tunnel in April 1960"
Tags: Mercury 13, women in space, NASA, University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh

Women in Space

With all the attention drawn to the sad case of Lisa Nowak, I thought it was a good time to point out the many contributions of women to the exploration of space.

• To start, NPR has a timeline of women in space from 2005.
• If you head over the the NASA Frontiers site has profiles of a number of women "pioneers" in the space program. You can also listen to Eileen Collins (first woman shuttle commander) answer questions from orbit.
• Anousheh Ansari was the first female "private space explorer" While she was on the International Space Station, she maintained a "Space Blog". The last post was in October 2006, but you can still read the archives.

There are several sites with biographies:

• Encyclopedia Astronautica: Women of Space profiles women in both the U.S. and Russian (Soviet) space programs.
• The University of Alabama's womens studies program links to profiles of female astronauts from the Johnson Space Center astronaut biography site.

There are many women (and men) who trained, but never made it into space. Anyone thinking of joining NASA should read Homer Hickam's column "What makes an astronaut crack?" (free registration or bugmenot required).

Tags: women astronauts, NASA

Anniversary of the Challenger Accident

Twenty-one years ago, on January 28, 1986, NASA mission STS-51-L ended in disaster, when the Space Shuttle Challenger broke up 73 seconds after launch.

The crew consisted of Mission Specialist Ellison Onizuka; teacher Christa McAuliffe, Payload Specialist Gregory Jarvis; Mission Specialist, Judith Resnik, PhD; Pilot Michael J. Smith, Commander Dick Scobee, and Mission Specialist Ron McNair, PhD. All of their lives were cut too short.

Since this blog is about women in science, I'd like to say a little more about Judith Resnik. Resnik received her doctorate in electrical engineering from the University of Maryland in 1977. She worked as a design engineer at RCA on NASA-related projects, as a senior systems engineer with Xerox and as a biomedical engineer at the National Institutes of Health.

She said that she never hesitated to pursue an engineering career despite the few number of women in the field. "I was always good in math and science, and I liked it. Maybe I liked it because I was good in it." (Challenger Center Profile)

In January 1978 she was selected for the astronaut program and joined NASA. Her first mission was on the initial voyage of the space shuttle Discovery in 1984, making her the second American woman in space*. The Challenger was her second mission.

Senator (and former astronaut) John Glenn noted at her memorial service that she died doing what she loved:

Now let me speak of happiness. It has been my observation that the happiest of people, the vibrant doers of the world are almost always those who are using - who are putting into play, calling upon, depending upon-the greatest number of their God-given talents and capabilities. For them, curiosity is a way of life, and the quest for knowledge and the new is insatiable and exhilarating.

But it becomes many-fold more meaningful when put to use for a higher purpose, for something bigger than self, for a goal that calls on those individuals to dictate themselves to accomplishment for the betterment of our nation, and indeed for all mankind. The individual's safety takes second place to that curiosity, that quest, that daring and dedication with the highest of purpose.

Judy Resnik, whom we both honor and memorialize here today, was such a person in every sense of those words. I know that from talking to her in my office after her first flight. She and her fellow crew members knew that exultation of accomplishment, the triumph of spirit that came from dedication to a purpose larger than themselves. They would never have joined those tepid and vacuous souls whose only goal is self-interest and safety, and neither can we.

Today the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) confers the Judith A. Resnik Award "to recognize outstanding contributions to space engineering" in her honor.

Additional Reading

• NASA History Division: Challenger STS 51-L Accident Links
• MS-NBC: 7 myths about the Challenger shuttle disaster

* The first American woman in space was Sally Ride, PhD, who was a Mission Specialist on Challenger's 1983 voyage.

Tags: Challenger, Judith Resnik