Women in Space, Science Fiction, and How We Change the World

A look at Lady Astronauts, For All Mankind, alt-history and the future

Photo by NASA on Unsplash

I wanted to be an astronaut. Not very seriously, and not for very long, but considering how much science fiction I read and watched as a teenager, it was pretty much a given.

I thought it would be cool to be the first American woman in space. A Russian woman, Valentina Tereshkova, was the first woman in space in 1963, the year before I was born, but even by the time I graduated from high school in 1982, no American woman had been in space.

As we all know, Sally Ride changed that a year later, and even though I wouldn’t have been the first, I still could have been an astronaut if I’d had the drive and dedication. Clearly, I didn’t.

Because that’s what it takes, right? Ambition, drive, intelligence, majoring in the right things in college, maybe learning to fly, maybe joining the military, smart life choices, and a singular focus on your goal. Maybe a little luck combined with all that preparation.

All true, unless it’s the 1950s and 1960s, and you’re a woman.

In a very happy coincidence, I recently read all of the Lady Astronaut books by Mary Robinette Kowal at the same time I was binging the Apple…