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This Op-ed appeared in the Sunday
Republican on August 1, 1999 and in theChicago Tribune
on August 4, 1999.
IT'S TIME TO TAKE ONE GIANT STEP
FOR WOMANKIND
by Martha Ackmann
NASA has landed into the history
books again, thirty years since the day Neil Armstrong took that
"one small step for man." The space agency's most recent accomplishment
reminds us that when those famous words were recorded in 1969,
men were indeed the only ones allowed the adventure and challenge
of space flight. Not until a decade later would NASA accept women
astronauts into its ranks.
In 1985 Sally Ride shattered for American women the glass ceiling
in space, and since then Shannon Lucid, Kathryn Sullivan, the
late Judith Resnik, Mae Jemison and others have added to the catalogue
of laudable accomplishments. Now Eileen Collins has extended that
record one significant step further, becoming the first woman
ever to command and lead a NASA mission. Although it's taken NASA
until the last year of the twentieth century, it can finally be
said that--when it comes to space--at last a woman is in the driver's
seat.
Collins' history-making flight, as significant as it is, did not
command the public attention it deserved. With the exception of
John Glenn's return to space last fall, NASA missions in general--not
just those including women--have not succeeded in grabbing the
American psyche to the degree that the early Mercury, Gemini,
and Apollo missions once did.
Certainly outer space has not become less exciting than it was
in the 1960s. NASA, however, has not found compelling strategies
to translate that inspiration to the public in ways that have
meaning, value, and magnetism.
The lack of interest among women and girls in the space program
is particularly striking. Seldom do the names of women astronauts
make the list of "most admired American women." Few college women
can retrieve the name of Sally Ride when listing female firsts.
And it's the rare girl who wears a T-shirt emblazoned with rockets
and the strong confident faces of Collins and her crewmate Cady
Coleman.
The indifference is troubling. Coupled with persistent and pervasive
cultural messages that math and science are the domain of boys,
talented young women continue to be diverted from making a contribution
to scientific knowledge. While NASA has made great strides in
employing women over the last thirty years, one startling statistic
remains. Only 17% of last year's applicants to the astronaut program
were women. Obviously NASA needs to develop more effective ways
to interest women in space exploration and recruit them into its
program.
Part of the problem is invisibility and cultural amnesia. Among
our greatest national resources for imparting understanding of
the space program is the National Air and Space Museum in Washington,
D.C. The most-visited museum in the world, Air and Space attracts
10,000,000 visitors annually. While the museum is wildly popular,
its exhibits are woefully out-of-date. The Apollo Gallery that
chronicles the race to the moon remains virtually unchanged since
the mid-seventies and captures nothing of women's early struggles
to secure equal opportunity and far too little on their current
contributions.
At present, the museum is undergoing extensive renovation and
new exhibits are not likely to be added immediately. But the occasion
of Collins' historic mission provides an auspicious moment to
correct these failings.
The museum should honor the achievement of Collins and the formidable
women who have gone before her in pledging now to place new and
just emphasis on the role women have played in our national space
story.
Still, we must deal with the matter of some unfinished business
for the nation itself.
In an Oval Office ceremony last year that announced her appointment
as shuttle commander, Collins seized the moment to remind us that
she stands on the shoulders of many unacknowledged women in aviation,
including the Mercury 13.
Largely unknown to the public, the Mercury 13 were accomplished
women pilots who were tested in the 1960s for their mental and
physical aptitude to become astronauts. In tests conducted by
Dr. Randolph Lovelace II, chairman of NASA's special advisory
committee on life sciences, the women scored as well as the famed
Mercury 7 astronauts and, in some cases, better. Yet in the eleventh
hour, as the women were to enter final testing in Pensacola, NASA
got cold feet caused-by a bad case of sexism-and backed away from
the project. The women were told simply to go home.
Mercury 13 member Jerri Sloan Truhill remembers that summer of
1961.
"I bought a ticket to Pensacola and had my bags packed," she recalled,
her voice still filled with exasperation and anger. "I was a mother.
It wasn't easy to get things ready to go, but I was eager to do
it. I wanted a chance."
Truhill and the others did not get their chance even after forcing
a Congressional hearing to review their case. In the 1960s, they
had the right stuff, but it was the wrong time.
On the occasion of Collins' history mission the time is right
to acknowledge the contributions of these early pioneers in America's
space program. Recognition of their accomplishments will serve
to inspire and recruit the next generation of women astronauts.
It's time President Clinton conveyed the nation's thanks to Myrtle
"K" Cagle, Jerrie Cobb, Jan Dietrich, Wally Funk, Jane Hart, Irene
Leverton, Sarah Gorelick Ratley, Bernice "B" Steadman, Jerri Sloan
Truhill, Rhea Allison Woltman and to the families of the late
Marion Dietrich and Jean Hixson.
Women who struggle to open doors that have been closed to them
know that the fight for equal rights takes many steps, not a single
small one.
Martha Ackmann is a women's studies professor at Mount Holyoke
College in South Hadley, Massachusetts.
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