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Man Made: Technology And The Women Unseen

This article is more than 4 years old.

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On 1 March, Kristen Facciol, Canadian Space Agency Flight Controller at NASA, tweeted, “I just found out that I’ll be on console providing support for the FIRST ALL FEMALE SPACEWALK.” Women around the world chimed in with cheers of support with a jibe in the mix about the first “unmanned spacewalk.” But as we were to learn this past week, the all-female spacewalk was not to happen because of spacesuit sizing problems as the spacewalk was undertaken by Nick Hague and Christina Koch.

In response to this announcement, many took to Twitter, one woman writing, “I work in an ambulance, where everything from the driver’s seat to the latch on the cot is made for your average sized man. I know this intimately, and felt an angry pit of experiential empathy in my stomach when I heard about this spacewalk cancellation.” Another female astrophysicist tweeted, “So the first all-women spacewalk has been canceled because there aren’t enough spacesuits available in right size. I can almost hear the tired sighs of every woman who has ever attended a science conference and asked for a t-shirt that fits.” Even Hillary Clinton added her thoughts, quite succinctly, “Make another suit.” And these are sentiments that are resoundingly familiar to women in and out of STEM, where technology presupposes male subjects. What this recent spacesuit fiasco reveals is that NASA has not caught up with the reality that female astronauts not only exist but that their numbers are growing.

Today, technology overwhelmingly focuses on the presupposed or ideal subject of the male even though the average human male is on average between 15% and 20% larger than females as well as having longer arms and far larger hands and feet. Given that the gear for a spacewalk is part of the life and death equipment for astronauts, it should not have been an afterthought for NASA that perhaps that they ought to make smaller spacesuits and add-on components. But somehow it was until pretty much the last minute regardless of the rather flimsy excuses used these past days to justify that NASA did no wrong. Let’s face it: The only way women will be more fairly represented in STEM fields such as space exploration is if the structures accommodate women’s lives and bodies. And this paradigm of centering uniforms, equipment and even office layouts on the male body can also be found far afield of the sciences and tech. For women, this problem is pretty much everywhere from how Mette Abildgaard, Danish MP, was asked to leave Parliament last week for bringing her child to work to female soldiers who have been forced to use body armor designed for a male body which caused herniations to former Air Force captain, Rebecca Lipe, while serving in Iraq. There is also a far higher rate of stress fractures (2.4% for males, 12.3% for females) due to hip belts and metal frames for rucksacks.

Even beyond gear and uniforms, females have not been properly represented in scientific studies, in clinical trials of drug companies and medical device manufacturers, where it is discovered side-effects and metabolism rates that are distinct in females and where dosage has to be adjusted once medications have already hit the market.

While some might justify these oversights by citing budgetary constraints, the fact that men traditionally flew space missions, or that NASA’s uniforms are built in segments, it’s still no coincidence that a female astronaut couldn’t go on Friday’s mission. In other words, the reasons why in 2019 the presumed body frame for an astronaut is not that of a five-foot-tall astronaut are still largely cultural.

But not to worry, women—we have been thrown a historical bone. In the 1970s, NASA engineers designed a prototype makeup kit so women could bring makeup into space. You know, where eyeliner is more important than being able to walk, just like back on earth.

While taking in some of the most bizarre defenses of NASA’s failure to provide appropriately-sized uniforms for women and then reading articles like this about makeup for space missions, it became all the more apparent to me how sexism is still a massive social blindspot. Ironically, one has to wonder if the clichés about women being obsessed over our clothing is not a complete reversal, if not projection, of this myth. What women are seeing from our unique perspective is this: A society of men who can’t seem to understand that women also need properly sized professional gear to continue their mission, as men laboriously ensure that their fashion needs alone will be met.

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