December 7, 2019 • 21 mins
When Kennedy announced the lunar missions, several women hoped to make the trip. The women of Mercury 13 excelled at physical testing yet weren't allowed to work at NASA. Why? Find out in this classic episode.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to Stephane.
Never told your production of I Heard Radio's How Stuff
Works for Classic. Today we are talking about female astronauts because,
(00:26):
after some delays, the first all female spacewalk took place
a couple of weeks ago. As we record this, who
knows when you're listening to it on October nineteen with
NASA astronauts Jessica Meyer and Christina Coke and four American
women to complete a spacewalk. It went well, no incidents
(00:47):
to report bearstead of the event. It's really interesting for us.
This is just us doing our job, but we've been
training for six years, so it's coming up here and
doing our job at the same time. We reckon guys
that it is historic achievement and we want to give
credit to the women who came before us. We have
followed in their footsteps to get where we are today.
(01:08):
And Coke said, I think it's important because of the
historical nature of what we're doing and that in the
past women haven't always been at the table. It's wonderful
to be contributing to human space flight at a time
when all contributions are being accepted. When everyone has a
role and that can lead intern to increased chance for success.
There are a lot of people that derive motivation from
(01:29):
inspiring stories from people that look like them, and I
think it's an important aspect of the story to tell. Agreed, Agreed, Um,
that's so cool. It is on my to do list
to go to space? Is it? It's the last item
because I'm assuming it's going to be the most difficult
for me to achieve. I would think so, But I
(01:50):
have inspiration now. Um this. I love learning about female astronauts.
Um astronauts of general. Right. Obviously, women make up only
about ten of the people who have gone to space.
Of the active thirty astronauts we have today, only twelve
our women, so we do have some ways to go.
(02:12):
And seeing women like this, hopefully some young girl was
watching and thinking I can do that, and we'll get
more and more women. She'll put it on her list.
She'll put it on her list, and uh, maybe in
a more serious manner than it's online. But I was
really excited to hear this. And apologies if I mispronounced
(02:36):
the names. Names are difficult. Names are difficult, that's how
they are pronounced around Somebody has the same last name,
and that's how he m. So. I just wanted to share,
share that exciting news and share this classic episode about
female astronauts with you all. Please enjoy. Welcome to Stuff
(03:00):
Mom Never told you from how Stuff works dot com. Heh,
and welcome to the podcast. This is Molly and I'm
Kristen Kristin. Today we're going to shoot for the stars,
shoot for the moon, go to infinity and beyond. And
by that I mean we're going to space, going straight
to space. We're going to talk about women, NASA, astronauts, sexism,
(03:25):
all sorts of good stuff. Um So, I mean, let's
talk about astronauts. Did you ever want to be an
astronaut when you're a kid? Nope, fear of heights, no
desire here. That settles it pretty quick. I mean my
ambitions lay solely on the ground, on the ground, just
the metaphorical stars. What about you? Um? I guess not.
(03:49):
I I always ask the questions. Sometimes I'm having conversations
with people about whether they would go to space if
they could never come back. If someone gave you a
free trip to space and get the experience of seeing space,
be could never come back. That sounds terrible. I think
I'd take it. When else can you go to space
and tell no one about it? And some experiences can
be magically even they're just for you. I guess. Well, wait,
(04:11):
that's that was on my on my mind when we
started doing this research about women and the obstacles they
ran into when they were going up against NASA, then
the Space Agen, yes, NASA's space agency and so far.
Just to give you an idea of how few women
have been into space via NASA, fifty four fifty four
(04:32):
female astronauts. That's that's all we got. I think that
includes more than just the American women that I do
think that includes international Yeah, so my even last Yeah,
so fifty four women out of all women in the
world have been in space. And you know, for a
while the face of NASA that was female was just
an astronaut's wife. Um, those were sort of the first
(04:53):
women that people really associate with with NASA because the
women would have to sit at home while their husbands
went to space since it was such a huge unknown.
I mean, you know, they kind of felt like they
were saying they were waiting for their husbands to die
when they sat there watching the television and by the way,
NASA had cameras there to um present a public face
the world of these brave women sitting at home waiting
for the men. They actually formed an Astronaut's wives club
(05:16):
because there were so few of them, and little did
they A lot of people know that even though they
were in the media limelight, they were just living on
the government paychecks. It's not like they were living these
extravagant lives like astronauts weren't paid very well. But then
they were thrust into high society, so tough life that
(05:37):
these one had to lead and a lot of them
said that, um, after their husbands would come home from space. Uh,
they always kind of had to play second fiddle to NASA.
I mean, one that can you compete with the moon?
These men, you know, they've they've done something that so
few humans have done. It is natural that for a
lot of them, depression set in and they had trouble
(05:58):
reacclimating to Earth and it was the wives who really
bore the brunt of that. And um, you know, there
are a lot of really good articles about these women
who kind of um formed the domestic face of NASA,
but less known are women who were trying to become
astronauts at the same time that many of these wives
were sitting at home watching television. Yes, um, and we
(06:19):
should start the conversation with Mercury thirteen. And this was
the first group of elite women who were tested and
trained at the Lovelace Clinic, which was an aviation medicine
hub that also tested Mercury seven, which were America's first astronauts.
And they found these thirteen women who they called first
(06:40):
Lady Astronauts trainees or flats, and they excelled at their
astronaut testing. Yeah, basically Robert levels, like you said, he
tested the male astronauts, and he wanted to see if
women would withstand the test just as well, because someone
had a theory that women weighed less and so maybe
it would take less gas to get them to base.
(07:01):
So he was like, all right, I'm gonna do this
on my own. I'm not going to tell the government.
I've got these contacts with the government, so if the
women end up doing well, I can get them in.
And like you said, they did awesome. They gave them
harder tests than the men went through. Most notably, they
left one woman in a deprivation tank which is filled
with water for nine hours, like the longest they made
jong Lens and that water was six hours. So she
(07:22):
did great. Um, all sorts of physical, emotional, batteries of tests.
The women were doing awesome. So at that point Loves
was like, I'm onto something, going to get the military
on this and get some real standardized testing on these women.
And that's where we went into trouble. Yeah, just days
before these flats, the lady Astronaut trainees were supposed to
(07:44):
report to the Navy Aviation Naval Aviation Center in Pensacola,
everything was shut down. The plug is pulled. Plug was
pulled on mercury. And the excuse that the women got
was that there had been this dictate put into place
by Eisenhower that women had to be and I mean
that any astronaut had to be in the military to
serve as an astronaut. UM, so women weren't allowed to
(08:07):
serve in the military. Then by default, then no woman
could be astronaut and astronaut no matter how well she
did on the testing. The women did not take that
news very well, and they started organizing meetings with members
of Congress and with Vice President Johnson to plead their case.
And it was during these hearings that a lot of
(08:31):
inherent sexism comes out, not only within just Congress, but
also Um. Some unsavory quotes from John Glenn lay one on,
is Kristen all right? So this is John Glenn testifying
in the nineteen sixty two congressional hearing on official astronaut qualifications,
trying to figure out whether or not women can meet
(08:51):
those qualifications. And he says, and this is John Glenn,
famed astronaut, the fact that women are not in this
field is a fact of our so shill order. He's
just saying, like women, women don't belong in space. And
he continued, if we could find any women that demonstrate
they have better qualifications than men, we would open them
with open arms. An audience goes crazy because he's implying
(09:14):
that women aren't as good as men. Um, can I
tell you about what Michael Collins of Apollo Levin said? Please? Um,
this is and you better remember it is the sixties.
It's not the most enlightened time. But he wrote dreamily
of the ingenious possibilities of weightlessness. Quote no need to
carry braws into space, that's for sure. Imagine a spacecraft
(09:35):
of the future with the crew of a thousand ladies,
with two thousand breasts bobbling, bobbing beautifully and quivering delightfully,
and I am the commander of the craft and a
just Saturday morning and time for inspection. Naturally. Oh wow, Yeah,
I didn't he write that in space, like in his
space diary or something, dreaming about space. That's how I
think of it. I think of him floating around in
(09:57):
his space capsule dreaming of bobbing breasts. Well, and you know,
to be fair, they probably thought we shouldn't have women
women on the spacecraft if we've got people like Michael
Collins dreaming of of witless breasts space bobbing around. Um.
And one representative said that, you know, eventually they wouldn't
eedt women in the space program so they could colonize
other planets. Another classic. But basically, the hearings decided that
(10:21):
it was not time to lift that uh little arcane
rule that eis and are put in place that women
had to come from military. You know, the women were
just saying, we want to be part of history too.
We know this is a big focus for our country
right now. Let us help and the hearing sort of
found like, you know, let's let the guys do this
first and then we'll worry about you ladies. Meanwhile, in Russia,
(10:56):
they didn't care. They sent old vale Tina tursha Cova
up in space, becoming the first woman in space in
June of nineteen sixty three. Yeah, and the women tried
to use that to their advantage, like, we hear Russia's
got this woman they're going to send up. Why don't
we get when do we get a woman up there too?
And they were like, that's just a Russian publicity stunt.
(11:17):
Women just Americans just pipe down, okay, And to be fair,
it probably was. And a lot of the quotes you
find about tursh Cova it was um that. You know,
after after that there are a lot of male people
in that space program saying I'm never gonna work with
a woman again. So it took a while after trish
Cova to get another another woman in space. The Mercury
thirteen women disbanded and didn't come together again until um
(11:39):
Eileen Collins piloted a Space Shuttle and they all came
for her launch at her invitation because she wanted to
thank them for being so inspirational to her. But most
women when they think of the Space program and NASA
and women think of Sally Ride, Sally K. Ride, astrophysicist
in America's first woman astronaut, who took off into space
(12:01):
on June eighteenth, nineteen three. So by the time Sally
Ride went into space, they had done all. They had
done more testing, they had gotten rid of this one
rule about military pilots that have kept the Mercury thirteen
women back um allegedly even though it was probably just
greater sexism. And they did test after tests on men
and women in space, and most of the tests were
(12:21):
focused on um. Of course women in menstruation. Could women
who had their periods in space handle that as well
as maybe men who weren't encumbered by that? Whereou that
menstrual blood go that gravity free environment? I think? Actually, now,
when they send a woman into space her box of tampons,
all the tampons are kind of attached to each other
so that the one won't fly away before the women
(12:43):
can can use it. Um side note um. But basically
these tests find that there's no difference between men and
women in space. In fact, some tests start to find
that women might do better in space than men, like
those Mercury three tests held out. Maybe women have the
emotional reserves to deal with the isolation and the craziness
of space. Maybe they deal with the muscle loss better.
(13:06):
Maybe they are less likely to have a heart attack
and die in space, and are are just stronger physically
to undertake the mission. Yes, and yet there's still been
you know this this huge reservation about UM sending women
into space. But one woman we do need to mention
before we go any further is may See Jemison. She
(13:26):
was an engineer and medical doctor who became the first
black woman in space on September twelve, nineteen two. And
like I mentioned, Eileen Collins also deserves a big shout out.
She was the first one to pilot an American space shuttle,
and then the first one went to pilot and command
and as a space shuttle, and that was in and
then two thousand five. So more women are slowly going
(13:46):
into space. UM, it seems like there will always be
that sort of confusion about whether it's a man's job
or a woman's Jobbing in China starting to work on
their space program, and they're saying only mothers can go
into space because they don't want to mess up a
woman future fertility. So this question is still of you know,
women and children and um periods. It's still kind of
(14:08):
screwing up women's journeys into the stars. Do you think though,
that the Columbia and the Challenger disasters where four women
were killed for female astronauts were killed, do you think
that that the kind of the magnitude of those dissasters
we had a chilling effect at all. I mean, they
didn't happen all that long ago, but it seemed like,
(14:30):
you know, I mean, that's uh, four out of fourteen
astronauts being female. That's that's a much better gratio than
it used to be. That's true, And especially on the Challenger,
when christ mccalloff, the teacher, was such the public face
of that disaster, I think that probably, yeah, if you
were a little girl at the time, seeing her so
closely associated with that disaster probably did put a damper
on a lot of astronaut dreams. Although Sally Ride would
(14:53):
say that the problem is not so much disasters like that,
it's just that we don't push girls in math and
science as well as push boys. And this is a
discussion that you know, we've had several times on whether, um,
whether girls are given the tools to excel in these fields.
But she started salary Wite Science, a corporation that teaches
both teachers and girls about how to keep science interesting,
(15:15):
um beyond the middle school in high school years. So
she's hoping that that sort of work will keep girls
more interested in the pursuits that could lead to a
space career. And then it also this whole issue also
just brings up a larger societal question of why we
still have trouble with the idea of putting women in
high risk situations. You know, it goes into like women
(15:37):
being allowed into combat and the military sending women into space.
You know, just anytime we position women in a life
potentially life threatening arena, were far less comfortable than putting
a man in the same place. Yeah, despite the fact that,
like we said, women might be better physically equipped if
these studies are correct, um, then men. But then again,
some people could say that the entire space program was
(16:00):
underfunded and maybe it doesn't matter at all, maybe it's useless, um.
But I do think that's a valid question, is do
we not want women in space because it is you know,
something that's so unknown and that makes us nervous um
or you know, is there still inherent sexism in some
of these fields? You know, it's it's worth um questioning
whenever you see a space command going up. And of
(16:21):
course we have to mention old Lisa Noak. Oh, yeah,
the bad apple of female asternaut. For all of the
progress other female astronauts had made. You had to go
and strap on some disposal diapers and chase down who
was it her? Her husband or ex husband's was just
a boyfriend, a boyfriend's girlfriend, and she had a husband
(16:44):
and some kids at home and wanted to confront her
female rival for a fellow astronauts affection, and you know
that might maybe that's an issue. There have been, um,
you know, quotes and all these articles were reading about
how this one man said he wouldn't send just one
woman up into space. He would send three time, so
that there wouldn't be like a rivalry between two of them,
and one of them just wouldn't be like the token
(17:05):
woman that everyone was after. Like, you know, if you
are up there for months at a time, what kind
of dynamics sets in in such close quarters? Uh? Now,
I don't know, speaking of the deprivation testing, I'm not
sure which year this was, but uh yeah, it does
seem like it's a bad idea to only send one
woman at a time because there was deprivation testing going
(17:26):
on in Antarctica. That was one woman among all these
other men who were training to be astronauts, and apparently
her presence alone, they're just being one of her in
these icy, barren conditions caused some violence among the men.
I don't know, things get weird, because get really weird sometimes,
but should women be punished because the men can't can't
handle their deprivation? Absolutely not. I mean it's it's only
(17:49):
that's only more of an argument to for gender parity
even out the ratios, and maybe dudes won't flip out
so much. I know that's so sexist of me to say,
but that's kind of it's kind of that will make
up for that bobbing breast quote there We good take
that dreamy astronaut man? Who who was someone who wrote that?
Michael Colin, Michael Collins. Well that's what we've got on
(18:26):
female astronauts. We'd love to hear from you guys, if
you wanted to be an astronaut. If you never wanted
to be an astronaut, If you still want to be
an astronaut, tell us your dreams about shooting among the stars,
and you can write us at mom Stuff at how
stuff works dot com and we shall read some emails.
I have one here from Victoria, and she writes, I
(18:47):
was listening to your podcast when I heard want of
you used the colloquialism rule of thumb. I thought that
you might appreciate the history behind it. Many people still
use it, and I feel like the history needs to
get out. In the late eighteen hundreds and early nineteen hundreds,
it was a common practice and actually became a law
in Virginia that men could only beat their wives with
a stick there was the width of their thumb or less.
When I heard of this fact, I was horrified, And
(19:08):
I know the general population doesn't know about this, So
I thought, if you read this on your podcast, you
can enlighten your listeners. This stems from generations of misogyny
and sexism, but little by little, we're all doing our
best at five backs with this my one to punch
to sexism for today. Well, I have an email here
from Melissa, and this is about our podcast on hyman's
and she writes, I found your hyman podcast very interesting. However,
(19:32):
I think you should have covered a few problems that
can result in having to have minor surgery to have
your hyman removed. You made it sound like it was
never a big deal, and it can be. There at
least three cases where the hyman may have to be
removed by a doctor. These are an imperfort hyman, a
microprofert hyman, and acceptate hyman. You can find out more
(19:55):
about those three types of hyman at Young Women's Health
dot org. You might want to check them out and
address them. I know I had a micro perforate hyman
in my teens and had to have it removed by
a doctor. I remember it being a big scary deal
to me at the time and feeling like a freak.
I think it would be nice to do a follow
up podcast on these conditions. Perhaps you will, or if anything,
(20:15):
we could do a follow up blog post. So if
you have any suggestions or ideas or stories to send
our way again, our email addresses mom Stuff at how
stuff works dot com. You can also head over to
Facebook and like us there and converse with other moms
Stuff listeners, and you can follow us on Twitter as well.
Our handle is at mom Stuff Podcast. Then, finally, you
(20:37):
can read our blog during the week, It's Stuff Mom
Never told You from how Stuff Works dot com. Be
sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff from
the Future. Join how Stuff Work staff as we explore
the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow. The house
Stuff Works iPhone app has a ride. Download it today
(21:00):
on iTunes.
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to Stephane.
Never told your production of I Heard Radio's How Stuff
Works for Classic. Today we are talking about female astronauts because,
(00:26):
after some delays, the first all female spacewalk took place
a couple of weeks ago. As we record this, who
knows when you're listening to it on October nineteen with
NASA astronauts Jessica Meyer and Christina Coke and four American
women to complete a spacewalk. It went well, no incidents
(00:47):
to report bearstead of the event. It's really interesting for us.
This is just us doing our job, but we've been
training for six years, so it's coming up here and
doing our job at the same time. We reckon guys
that it is historic achievement and we want to give
credit to the women who came before us. We have
followed in their footsteps to get where we are today.
(01:08):
And Coke said, I think it's important because of the
historical nature of what we're doing and that in the
past women haven't always been at the table. It's wonderful
to be contributing to human space flight at a time
when all contributions are being accepted. When everyone has a
role and that can lead intern to increased chance for success.
There are a lot of people that derive motivation from
(01:29):
inspiring stories from people that look like them, and I
think it's an important aspect of the story to tell. Agreed, Agreed, Um,
that's so cool. It is on my to do list
to go to space? Is it? It's the last item
because I'm assuming it's going to be the most difficult
for me to achieve. I would think so, But I
(01:50):
have inspiration now. Um this. I love learning about female astronauts.
Um astronauts of general. Right. Obviously, women make up only
about ten of the people who have gone to space.
Of the active thirty astronauts we have today, only twelve
our women, so we do have some ways to go.
(02:12):
And seeing women like this, hopefully some young girl was
watching and thinking I can do that, and we'll get
more and more women. She'll put it on her list.
She'll put it on her list, and uh, maybe in
a more serious manner than it's online. But I was
really excited to hear this. And apologies if I mispronounced
(02:36):
the names. Names are difficult. Names are difficult, that's how
they are pronounced around Somebody has the same last name,
and that's how he m. So. I just wanted to share,
share that exciting news and share this classic episode about
female astronauts with you all. Please enjoy. Welcome to Stuff
(03:00):
Mom Never told you from how Stuff works dot com. Heh,
and welcome to the podcast. This is Molly and I'm
Kristen Kristin. Today we're going to shoot for the stars,
shoot for the moon, go to infinity and beyond. And
by that I mean we're going to space, going straight
to space. We're going to talk about women, NASA, astronauts, sexism,
(03:25):
all sorts of good stuff. Um So, I mean, let's
talk about astronauts. Did you ever want to be an
astronaut when you're a kid? Nope, fear of heights, no
desire here. That settles it pretty quick. I mean my
ambitions lay solely on the ground, on the ground, just
the metaphorical stars. What about you? Um? I guess not.
(03:49):
I I always ask the questions. Sometimes I'm having conversations
with people about whether they would go to space if
they could never come back. If someone gave you a
free trip to space and get the experience of seeing space,
be could never come back. That sounds terrible. I think
I'd take it. When else can you go to space
and tell no one about it? And some experiences can
be magically even they're just for you. I guess. Well, wait,
(04:11):
that's that was on my on my mind when we
started doing this research about women and the obstacles they
ran into when they were going up against NASA, then
the Space Agen, yes, NASA's space agency and so far.
Just to give you an idea of how few women
have been into space via NASA, fifty four fifty four
(04:32):
female astronauts. That's that's all we got. I think that
includes more than just the American women that I do
think that includes international Yeah, so my even last Yeah,
so fifty four women out of all women in the
world have been in space. And you know, for a
while the face of NASA that was female was just
an astronaut's wife. Um, those were sort of the first
(04:53):
women that people really associate with with NASA because the
women would have to sit at home while their husbands
went to space since it was such a huge unknown.
I mean, you know, they kind of felt like they
were saying they were waiting for their husbands to die
when they sat there watching the television and by the way,
NASA had cameras there to um present a public face
the world of these brave women sitting at home waiting
for the men. They actually formed an Astronaut's wives club
(05:16):
because there were so few of them, and little did
they A lot of people know that even though they
were in the media limelight, they were just living on
the government paychecks. It's not like they were living these
extravagant lives like astronauts weren't paid very well. But then
they were thrust into high society, so tough life that
(05:37):
these one had to lead and a lot of them
said that, um, after their husbands would come home from space. Uh,
they always kind of had to play second fiddle to NASA.
I mean, one that can you compete with the moon?
These men, you know, they've they've done something that so
few humans have done. It is natural that for a
lot of them, depression set in and they had trouble
(05:58):
reacclimating to Earth and it was the wives who really
bore the brunt of that. And um, you know, there
are a lot of really good articles about these women
who kind of um formed the domestic face of NASA,
but less known are women who were trying to become
astronauts at the same time that many of these wives
were sitting at home watching television. Yes, um, and we
(06:19):
should start the conversation with Mercury thirteen. And this was
the first group of elite women who were tested and
trained at the Lovelace Clinic, which was an aviation medicine
hub that also tested Mercury seven, which were America's first astronauts.
And they found these thirteen women who they called first
(06:40):
Lady Astronauts trainees or flats, and they excelled at their
astronaut testing. Yeah, basically Robert levels, like you said, he
tested the male astronauts, and he wanted to see if
women would withstand the test just as well, because someone
had a theory that women weighed less and so maybe
it would take less gas to get them to base.
(07:01):
So he was like, all right, I'm gonna do this
on my own. I'm not going to tell the government.
I've got these contacts with the government, so if the
women end up doing well, I can get them in.
And like you said, they did awesome. They gave them
harder tests than the men went through. Most notably, they
left one woman in a deprivation tank which is filled
with water for nine hours, like the longest they made
jong Lens and that water was six hours. So she
(07:22):
did great. Um, all sorts of physical, emotional, batteries of tests.
The women were doing awesome. So at that point Loves
was like, I'm onto something, going to get the military
on this and get some real standardized testing on these women.
And that's where we went into trouble. Yeah, just days
before these flats, the lady Astronaut trainees were supposed to
(07:44):
report to the Navy Aviation Naval Aviation Center in Pensacola,
everything was shut down. The plug is pulled. Plug was
pulled on mercury. And the excuse that the women got
was that there had been this dictate put into place
by Eisenhower that women had to be and I mean
that any astronaut had to be in the military to
serve as an astronaut. UM, so women weren't allowed to
(08:07):
serve in the military. Then by default, then no woman
could be astronaut and astronaut no matter how well she
did on the testing. The women did not take that
news very well, and they started organizing meetings with members
of Congress and with Vice President Johnson to plead their case.
And it was during these hearings that a lot of
(08:31):
inherent sexism comes out, not only within just Congress, but
also Um. Some unsavory quotes from John Glenn lay one on,
is Kristen all right? So this is John Glenn testifying
in the nineteen sixty two congressional hearing on official astronaut qualifications,
trying to figure out whether or not women can meet
(08:51):
those qualifications. And he says, and this is John Glenn,
famed astronaut, the fact that women are not in this
field is a fact of our so shill order. He's
just saying, like women, women don't belong in space. And
he continued, if we could find any women that demonstrate
they have better qualifications than men, we would open them
with open arms. An audience goes crazy because he's implying
(09:14):
that women aren't as good as men. Um, can I
tell you about what Michael Collins of Apollo Levin said? Please? Um,
this is and you better remember it is the sixties.
It's not the most enlightened time. But he wrote dreamily
of the ingenious possibilities of weightlessness. Quote no need to
carry braws into space, that's for sure. Imagine a spacecraft
(09:35):
of the future with the crew of a thousand ladies,
with two thousand breasts bobbling, bobbing beautifully and quivering delightfully,
and I am the commander of the craft and a
just Saturday morning and time for inspection. Naturally. Oh wow, Yeah,
I didn't he write that in space, like in his
space diary or something, dreaming about space. That's how I
think of it. I think of him floating around in
(09:57):
his space capsule dreaming of bobbing breasts. Well, and you know,
to be fair, they probably thought we shouldn't have women
women on the spacecraft if we've got people like Michael
Collins dreaming of of witless breasts space bobbing around. Um.
And one representative said that, you know, eventually they wouldn't
eedt women in the space program so they could colonize
other planets. Another classic. But basically, the hearings decided that
(10:21):
it was not time to lift that uh little arcane
rule that eis and are put in place that women
had to come from military. You know, the women were
just saying, we want to be part of history too.
We know this is a big focus for our country
right now. Let us help and the hearing sort of
found like, you know, let's let the guys do this
first and then we'll worry about you ladies. Meanwhile, in Russia,
(10:56):
they didn't care. They sent old vale Tina tursha Cova
up in space, becoming the first woman in space in
June of nineteen sixty three. Yeah, and the women tried
to use that to their advantage, like, we hear Russia's
got this woman they're going to send up. Why don't
we get when do we get a woman up there too?
And they were like, that's just a Russian publicity stunt.
(11:17):
Women just Americans just pipe down, okay, And to be fair,
it probably was. And a lot of the quotes you
find about tursh Cova it was um that. You know,
after after that there are a lot of male people
in that space program saying I'm never gonna work with
a woman again. So it took a while after trish
Cova to get another another woman in space. The Mercury
thirteen women disbanded and didn't come together again until um
(11:39):
Eileen Collins piloted a Space Shuttle and they all came
for her launch at her invitation because she wanted to
thank them for being so inspirational to her. But most
women when they think of the Space program and NASA
and women think of Sally Ride, Sally K. Ride, astrophysicist
in America's first woman astronaut, who took off into space
(12:01):
on June eighteenth, nineteen three. So by the time Sally
Ride went into space, they had done all. They had
done more testing, they had gotten rid of this one
rule about military pilots that have kept the Mercury thirteen
women back um allegedly even though it was probably just
greater sexism. And they did test after tests on men
and women in space, and most of the tests were
(12:21):
focused on um. Of course women in menstruation. Could women
who had their periods in space handle that as well
as maybe men who weren't encumbered by that? Whereou that
menstrual blood go that gravity free environment? I think? Actually, now,
when they send a woman into space her box of tampons,
all the tampons are kind of attached to each other
so that the one won't fly away before the women
(12:43):
can can use it. Um side note um. But basically
these tests find that there's no difference between men and
women in space. In fact, some tests start to find
that women might do better in space than men, like
those Mercury three tests held out. Maybe women have the
emotional reserves to deal with the isolation and the craziness
of space. Maybe they deal with the muscle loss better.
(13:06):
Maybe they are less likely to have a heart attack
and die in space, and are are just stronger physically
to undertake the mission. Yes, and yet there's still been
you know this this huge reservation about UM sending women
into space. But one woman we do need to mention
before we go any further is may See Jemison. She
(13:26):
was an engineer and medical doctor who became the first
black woman in space on September twelve, nineteen two. And
like I mentioned, Eileen Collins also deserves a big shout out.
She was the first one to pilot an American space shuttle,
and then the first one went to pilot and command
and as a space shuttle, and that was in and
then two thousand five. So more women are slowly going
(13:46):
into space. UM, it seems like there will always be
that sort of confusion about whether it's a man's job
or a woman's Jobbing in China starting to work on
their space program, and they're saying only mothers can go
into space because they don't want to mess up a
woman future fertility. So this question is still of you know,
women and children and um periods. It's still kind of
(14:08):
screwing up women's journeys into the stars. Do you think though,
that the Columbia and the Challenger disasters where four women
were killed for female astronauts were killed, do you think
that that the kind of the magnitude of those dissasters
we had a chilling effect at all. I mean, they
didn't happen all that long ago, but it seemed like,
(14:30):
you know, I mean, that's uh, four out of fourteen
astronauts being female. That's that's a much better gratio than
it used to be. That's true, And especially on the Challenger,
when christ mccalloff, the teacher, was such the public face
of that disaster, I think that probably, yeah, if you
were a little girl at the time, seeing her so
closely associated with that disaster probably did put a damper
on a lot of astronaut dreams. Although Sally Ride would
(14:53):
say that the problem is not so much disasters like that,
it's just that we don't push girls in math and
science as well as push boys. And this is a
discussion that you know, we've had several times on whether, um,
whether girls are given the tools to excel in these fields.
But she started salary Wite Science, a corporation that teaches
both teachers and girls about how to keep science interesting,
(15:15):
um beyond the middle school in high school years. So
she's hoping that that sort of work will keep girls
more interested in the pursuits that could lead to a
space career. And then it also this whole issue also
just brings up a larger societal question of why we
still have trouble with the idea of putting women in
high risk situations. You know, it goes into like women
(15:37):
being allowed into combat and the military sending women into space.
You know, just anytime we position women in a life
potentially life threatening arena, were far less comfortable than putting
a man in the same place. Yeah, despite the fact that,
like we said, women might be better physically equipped if
these studies are correct, um, then men. But then again,
some people could say that the entire space program was
(16:00):
underfunded and maybe it doesn't matter at all, maybe it's useless, um.
But I do think that's a valid question, is do
we not want women in space because it is you know,
something that's so unknown and that makes us nervous um
or you know, is there still inherent sexism in some
of these fields? You know, it's it's worth um questioning
whenever you see a space command going up. And of
(16:21):
course we have to mention old Lisa Noak. Oh, yeah,
the bad apple of female asternaut. For all of the
progress other female astronauts had made. You had to go
and strap on some disposal diapers and chase down who
was it her? Her husband or ex husband's was just
a boyfriend, a boyfriend's girlfriend, and she had a husband
(16:44):
and some kids at home and wanted to confront her
female rival for a fellow astronauts affection, and you know
that might maybe that's an issue. There have been, um,
you know, quotes and all these articles were reading about
how this one man said he wouldn't send just one
woman up into space. He would send three time, so
that there wouldn't be like a rivalry between two of them,
and one of them just wouldn't be like the token
(17:05):
woman that everyone was after. Like, you know, if you
are up there for months at a time, what kind
of dynamics sets in in such close quarters? Uh? Now,
I don't know, speaking of the deprivation testing, I'm not
sure which year this was, but uh yeah, it does
seem like it's a bad idea to only send one
woman at a time because there was deprivation testing going
(17:26):
on in Antarctica. That was one woman among all these
other men who were training to be astronauts, and apparently
her presence alone, they're just being one of her in
these icy, barren conditions caused some violence among the men.
I don't know, things get weird, because get really weird sometimes,
but should women be punished because the men can't can't
handle their deprivation? Absolutely not. I mean it's it's only
(17:49):
that's only more of an argument to for gender parity
even out the ratios, and maybe dudes won't flip out
so much. I know that's so sexist of me to say,
but that's kind of it's kind of that will make
up for that bobbing breast quote there We good take
that dreamy astronaut man? Who who was someone who wrote that?
Michael Colin, Michael Collins. Well that's what we've got on
(18:26):
female astronauts. We'd love to hear from you guys, if
you wanted to be an astronaut. If you never wanted
to be an astronaut, If you still want to be
an astronaut, tell us your dreams about shooting among the stars,
and you can write us at mom Stuff at how
stuff works dot com and we shall read some emails.
I have one here from Victoria, and she writes, I
(18:47):
was listening to your podcast when I heard want of
you used the colloquialism rule of thumb. I thought that
you might appreciate the history behind it. Many people still
use it, and I feel like the history needs to
get out. In the late eighteen hundreds and early nineteen hundreds,
it was a common practice and actually became a law
in Virginia that men could only beat their wives with
a stick there was the width of their thumb or less.
When I heard of this fact, I was horrified, And
(19:08):
I know the general population doesn't know about this, So
I thought, if you read this on your podcast, you
can enlighten your listeners. This stems from generations of misogyny
and sexism, but little by little, we're all doing our
best at five backs with this my one to punch
to sexism for today. Well, I have an email here
from Melissa, and this is about our podcast on hyman's
and she writes, I found your hyman podcast very interesting. However,
(19:32):
I think you should have covered a few problems that
can result in having to have minor surgery to have
your hyman removed. You made it sound like it was
never a big deal, and it can be. There at
least three cases where the hyman may have to be
removed by a doctor. These are an imperfort hyman, a
microprofert hyman, and acceptate hyman. You can find out more
(19:55):
about those three types of hyman at Young Women's Health
dot org. You might want to check them out and
address them. I know I had a micro perforate hyman
in my teens and had to have it removed by
a doctor. I remember it being a big scary deal
to me at the time and feeling like a freak.
I think it would be nice to do a follow
up podcast on these conditions. Perhaps you will, or if anything,
(20:15):
we could do a follow up blog post. So if
you have any suggestions or ideas or stories to send
our way again, our email addresses mom Stuff at how
stuff works dot com. You can also head over to
Facebook and like us there and converse with other moms
Stuff listeners, and you can follow us on Twitter as well.
Our handle is at mom Stuff Podcast. Then, finally, you
(20:37):
can read our blog during the week, It's Stuff Mom
Never told You from how Stuff Works dot com. Be
sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff from
the Future. Join how Stuff Work staff as we explore
the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow. The house
Stuff Works iPhone app has a ride. Download it today
(21:00):
on iTunes.
Stuff Mom Never Told You News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Samantha McVey
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.