'March is Women's History Month, so it would have been a great moment for the first all-women spacewalk,' writes Meg Urry for CNNOpinion, calling the spacesuit-related issues 'another disappointing reminder of how gender bias shapes our world'
Meg Urry is the Israel Munson Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Yale University and recent president of the American Astronomical Society. The opinions expressed in this commentary are hers. View more opinion on CNN.
March is Women's History Month, so it would have been a great moment for the first all-women spacewalk, with astronauts Anne McClain and Christina Koch. That was NASA's plan this week, until it realized it had a problem: two women astronauts, but only one space suit available in their size. So instead of McClain, a man -- Nick Hague -- will join Koch for the spacewalk, wearing the large suit that is flight-ready.
Meg UrryTo some, the change of personnel seems like a small thing, and NASA does say that the women's spacewalk milestone will happen eventually. But it's another disappointing reminder of how gender bias shapes our world. From the start of human space flight, the deck was stacked against women.
Women scientists show their force at science march 01:14Wouldn't the best approach be to catalog the attributes most needed in space, and then decide who might meet them, regardless of sex? If budget becomes a concern, the support systems could be tailored to those who satisfy the highest priority needs -- independent of sex or any other irrelevant characteristic.NASA isn't alone in just expecting women to meet male norms.
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