Victory for Women?

Nope but nice suits

This week, Jeff Bezos (through his aerospace company, Blue Origin) shot a rocket up “into space” for 11 minutes. All of the humans in the rocket were women, and the message was clearly sold to us all as a giant step forward for womankind: An all-female flight Crew going to space for the first time!

There is a significant difference between “something being done by a group of women” and “a win for feminism.” For instance, in my school there are around 100 staff members, and only about 10 of them are men. Do I describe my workplace as “woman-centered” or feminist because the vast majority of us are women? No I don’t. I also don’t consider the fact that the majority of nurses are women to be a win for us.

That said, I do think there ought to be more significance placed on the fact that 90% of all nursing and elementary education positions are performed by women. These fields require a level of intelligence, problem-solving, multitasking, improvisation, and emotional regulation that we could use in so many other professional spaces… such as in the federal government, for example.

Did you observe and/or experience the absolute hope and joy in so many of us when first Hillary, then Kamala, ran for president? It wasn’t just that they were women — after all, there are several women in politics who seem hell-bent on taking us backwards — it’s that they were smarter, sharper, more informed, and calmer than their opponent. It was an obvious choice, an undeniable one. These women, we women, are not judged using the same criteria as our male counterparts. I didn’t hear about the male candidate’s clothes, hair, or laugh. I didn’t hear about how likable or unlikable he was. And although I personally would be over the moon to be invited to have a glass of wine and a chat with either of these women, I am baffled as to why that would be any kind of criteria for electing them or not.

Feminism, to oversimplify, is the core belief that men and women have the same intrinsic value, and should be treated accordingly. A woman should make the same amount of money for doing the same work as a man in that position. Some would take this to mean that a woman and a man who are both lawyers at the same firm, with the same amount of education and experience, should earn the same salary. I say that it means that careers which are traditionally and currently staffed by a female majority should be worth as much as those that employ a majority of male employees.

There is one part of the Rich People Rocket story that does make my heart sing, however: Amanda Nguyen. After surviving a sexual assault and finding out that her rape kit would be destroyed after 6 months, she halted her academic work in astrophysics to take on the fight for Survivor Rights. She started a nonprofit which eventually helped to pass the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Bill of Rights. Ms. Nguyen was (as far as I can tell, though my research is not exhaustive) the only “astronaut” on the Billionaire Blast into Space who managed to work toward scientific advancement — she brought several experiments along pertaining to women’s health, to gather important data that can now be analyzed and published.

Let’s hope whatever comes out of those experiments is worth the time, money, and resources that could have definitely been used to solve some pretty major problems down here on Earth.

Thanks for reading.

Love, Susie