Making Space for Women

Description

Making Space for Women (Pioneering Women: Leaders and Trailblazers\, sponsored by the Jane Nelson Institute for Women’s Leadership\, Texas Woman’s University)
by Jennifer M. Ross-Nazzal

ISBN: 9781623499938
Hardcover, new

Brief Description:
From the creation of the Manned Spacecraft Center to the launching of the
International Space Station and beyond, Making Space for Women explores how
careers for women at Johnson Space Center have changed over the past fifty
years as the workforce became more diverse and fields once closed to women
–the astronaut corps and flight control–began to open. Jennifer M. Ross-
Nazzal has selected twenty-one interviews conducted for the NASA Oral
History Projects, including those with astronauts, mathematicians,
engineers, secretaries, scientists, trainers, managers, and more. The women
featured not only discuss leadership, teamwork, and the experiences of
being “the first,” but reveal how the role of the working woman in a
predominantly white, male, technical agency has evolved. The narratives
highlight the societal and cultural changes these women witnessed and the
lessons they learned as they pursued different career paths. Among those
included are Joan E. Higginbotham, mission specialist aboard the Space
Shuttle Discovery; Natalie V. Saiz, first female director of the Human
Resource Office; Kathryn Sullivan, the first American woman to walk in
space; Estella Hernández Gillette, the deputy director of the center’s
External Relations Office; and Carolyn Huntoon, the first woman director of
the Johnson Space Center. Making Space for Women offers a unique view of
the history of human spaceflight while also providing a broader
understanding of changes in American culture, society, industry, and life
for women in the space program. The women featured in this book demonstrate
that there are no boundaries or limits to a career at NASA for those who
choose to seize the opportunity.