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Women’s
Equality Day
NASA
joins organizations across the world to celebrate Women’s Equality Day on
August 26. The date coincides with the 99th birthday of NASA pioneer
Katherine Johnson, and we also send birthday wishes to Katherine as we
continue to forge new paths that she helped create for women at NASA and
beyond.
If
you’ve seen the Hidden Figures movie or read the book, you know how
Katherine served as a NASA physicist and mathematician whose work
contributed to our success from the earliest days of our agency through the
space shuttle and also raised the profile of African American women at
NASA. Indeed, Katherine performed the computations needed to assure John
Glenn of the safety of his mission as he became the first American in
orbit aboard the Friendship 7 in February 1962, among many other
achievements.
The
history of Women’s Equality Day dates to the 1920 certification of the
19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which granted women the right to
vote. When Katherine was born, women in America could not vote. They
could not open their own bank accounts or obtain credit without a male
family member’s permission. Very few women were in the professional
fields, with the exception of a few areas, such as nursing and early
childhood education. In short, women in America, regardless of their race
or economic class, did not have equal rights to participate in our
society.
We
still have work to do, but today’s environment is improved because of the
tremendous spirit and fearless drive of American women like Katherine Johnson,
and so many others of her generation and the generations since.
On
this Women’s Equality Day, we are happy to celebrate the lives and
achievements of a host of women scientists, engineers, technologists,
mathematicians and explorers who devoted their lives’ work to making
America a leader in space exploration and science. Many of them,
including astronauts like Sally Ride, Mae Jemison, and Ellen Ochoa, are
known the world over for their groundbreaking achievements in space
flight. But women have pushed the frontier of our achievement in every
area – women like Pearl Young, an engineer who became the first female
technical employee at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics
(NASA’s predecessor); the women known as the “Mercury 13,” a group of
aviators who, in the early 1960s demonstrated their space flight
readiness and paved the way for the first women in space 20 years later;
and, of course, Katherine Johnson and her colleagues, the human
“computers” of the Mercury and Apollo eras.
Today,
the women of NASA continue to lead and inspire in all facets of the
agency’s mission and operations. The face of NASA in 2017 includes women
like Johanna Lucht, an electronics instrumentation system engineer in the
Research Engineering Directorate at Armstrong Flight Research Center;
Wanda Peters, deputy director for planning and business management in the
Flight Projects Directorate at Goddard Space Flight Center; Julie
Williams-Byrd, deputy chief technologist at Langley Research Center;
Deborah Urbanski, Equal Employment Opportunity director at the Johnson
Space Center; Sandra Cauffman, deputy director of the Earth Science
division at Headquarters (and also recently honored with a postage stamp
in her native Costa Rica for her NASA achievements), along with a myriad
of administrative professionals who provide vital support to our mission.
And that’s just to name a very few of NASA’s “modern figures,” who
by their hard work and example are helping to chart a course for more
women to follow their lead.
I
invite you to visit the modern figures website and the Women@NASA
website to learn more about the rich history and current achievements of
NASA women. I also encourage you to participate in activities at NASA and
in your communities to commemorate Women’s Equality Day. As we continue
to explore the endless possibilities of space flight, and to journey ever
farther toward the stars, let’s recognize and honor the achievements of
everyone on whose shoulders we stand, and the wonderful work being done
today.
Robert
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