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title: "Maria Aparecida Soares Ruas"
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Maria Aparecida Soares Ruas (19482025) was a Brazilian mathematician specializing in differential geometry and singularity theory. She was a professor at the University of São Paulo.
== Education and career ==
Ruas was born on 5 January 1948, in Lins, São Paulo. She became interested in mathematics through a junior high school mathematics teacher, Râmisa Jorge, and after entering university study in 1967, earned a licenciate in mathematics in 1970 through what is now the Faculty of Science and Letters of the Araraquara campus of São Paulo State University.
She became a teaching assistant at the same campus in 1971, while at the same time studying for a master's degree at the University of São Paulo, working there with Gilberto Francisco Loibel; she completed her degree in 1974, and was promoted to assistant professor. In 1982 she moved to the University of São Paulo as a professor. She defended her doctoral dissertation, Finity Determinacy and Applications at the University of São Paulo in 1983. It was jointly advised by Luiz Antonio Fávaro and Terence Gaffney.
She headed the mathematics department at the University of São Paulo, was a founding member of the Brazilian Mathematical Society, and organized the biennial Workshop on Real and Complex Singularities in Brazil. She was a coauthor of the book Differential Geometry from a Singularity Theory Viewpoint (World Scientific, 2016, with Shyuichi Izumiya, Maria del Carmen Romero Fuster, and Farid Tari).
== Recognition and awards ==
Ruas was a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, elected in 2008, and in 2009 was named a commander in the National Order of Scientific Merit.
In January 2025, she received the Latin American Prize for Mathematical Leadership from the Institute of Mathematical Sciences of the Americas, in recognition of her scientific contributions and her role in academic training. The Prize is awarded to an individual or a group whose work enhances collaboration and advances research connecting mathematicians across multiple countries in the Americas.
== References ==

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title: "Pakistani women in STEM"
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While STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields all over the world are dominated by men, the number of Pakistani women in 'STEM' is low due to one of the highest gender gaps in STEM fields. However, over the time, some Pakistani women have emerged as scientists in fields like physics, biology and computer sciences.
== Gender gap in Pakistan ==
Pakistan has one of the highest gender gaps in the world, and it is the third least performer in gender parity according to a report published by World Economic Forum in 2020. The low literacy rate of women in Pakistan, despite women making almost half the population, is one of the factors in a high gender gap in STEM fields. This literacy rate is even lower in science and technology.
=== Facts ===
According to UNESCO, among students enrolled in bachelor's degrees, 47% are women while 53% are men. The number of women pursuing doctoral studies is only 36%, while the percentage of men is 64%. There is also a significant gender gap in research sector, with women making only 34% of researchers.
Among students in universities, the field of natural sciences is reported to have only 40% women students, while medical sciences have 45%, engineering has 21% and agricultural sciences have only 12%.
=== Engineering gender gap ===
According to the World Economic Forum, only 4.9% of engineering jobs are held by women in Pakistan. The numbers are particularly low in the energy sector with only 3% female engineers in the power transmission sector. The field of artificial intelligence has also seen few numbers of women engineers, with only 22% part of the workforce.
=== Bridging the gap ===
Efforts have been done by the government of Pakistan as well as women who are part of STEM fields, to reduce the wide gender gap in STEM. Since 2018, the government of Pakistan has worked to improve wage equality and its position on educational attainment index. Workplace sexual harassment laws have also been made to encourage women to become part of the workforce in both STEM fields as well as non STEM fields. Many private organizations like Women in tech, Women Engineers Pakistan Archived 25 May 2022 at the Wayback Machine have been founded to encourage STEM education in women.
== Notable women ==
Some notable Pakistani women contributing to STEM are:
Nergis Mavalvala : is Pakistani-American physicist known for her breakthrough research in gravitational waves detection in 2015. She has also received the prestigious MacArthur Foundation Award in 2010. Nergis became the first female Dean of school of sciences at MIT in 2020.
Tasneem Zehra Husain : is theoretical physicist and among the few Pakistani women to obtain a doctorate in physics. She is also the first Pakistani woman working on string theory. Husain has represented Pakistan at the Meeting of Nobel Laureates in Lindau, Germany and led the Pakistan team to the World Year of Physics (WYP) Launch Conference in Paris.
Asma Zaheer : is computer scientist and the first Pakistani to receive "the best of IBM award, 2019".
Azra Quraishi : She was a botanist who is credited for increasing potato yield by 5% in Pakistan. This improved Pakistan's position in trade and brought Azra, national recognition. She was awarded the Norman Borlaug Award in 1997.
Arfa Karim : was a computer prodigy who became the youngest person to become a Microsoft certified Professional in 2004. She was personally invited by Bill Gates to the Microsoft headquarters in USA. Arfa was also named in the Guinness book of world records.
Mariam Sultana : is an astrophysicist. She became the first female astrophysicist in Pakistan after she obtained her PhD in 2012.
Talat Shahnaz Rahman is a condensed matter physicist. Her research topics include surface phenomena and excited media, including catalysis, vibrational dynamics, and magnetic excitations.
Aban Markar Kabraji: is a biologist and scientist of Parsi origin. She is a regional director of the Asia Regional Office of IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature. She was awarded the Tamgha-e-Imtiaz for her outstanding contribution and dedication to the cause of environmental protection, sustainable development and nature conservation.
Asifa Akhtar: is a biologist who has worked in the area of chromosomes. She became the first international female vice president of the biology and medicine section at Germany's prestigious Max Planck Society. Asifa has also been awarded the European Life Science Organization (ELSO) award.
Farzana Aslam: is a physicist and astronomer. She has worked in the area of polymer composite sensitized with semiconductor nanoparticles, photon and laser sciences. For her contributions, Farzana was awarded a commendation award at the Photon 04 conference held by Institute of Physics at Glasgow.
== References ==
== External links ==
Women in Tech

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Films have portrayed professional women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields in various ways throughout film history.
== Overview ==
The study of female characters in film began with movements from the 1960s and 1970s in the form of second-wave feminism, the rise of independent films, and the beginning of academic film studies. Some films promote certain socially defined female stereotypical archetypes that often combine job stereotypes with gender stereotypes. The use of these stereotypes in film has been suggested to contribute to a questionable portrayal of women, especially revolving around themes of violence, sexuality, objectification, and subordination.
== Examples of female scientists in film ==
=== Early 20th century ===
The presentation of women as scientists on film goes back to the early days of cinema.
The first known presentation may be 1929's Woman in the Moon. Written by Thea von Harbou and directed by Fritz Lang, the film follows a group of Germans as they travel to the Moon. The group includes Friede Velten, an assistant on the trip, who chooses between two potential husbands and ultimately decides to stay on the Moon and live a new life there.
It would take almost ten years before another woman scientist would appear onscreen. When she did, Alice Swallow was a side character, a hard worker who was too busy to marry Cary Grant, who turned to fun-loving socialite Katharine Hepburn instead. Nevertheless, 1938's Bringing up Baby showed millions of people around the world a level-headed, independent woman who did not need to rely on a man to move her life forward.
The earliest portrayal of a real-life woman scientist may be the 1943 film Madame Curie starring Greer Garson as Polish-French physicist Marie Curie in 1890s Paris.
These portrayals in A-list movies were rare and it would take decades before they become more common-place. However, the 1950s saw a proliferation of low-budget American B-movies which show-cased female scientists and post-graduates. They were normally associated with a male boss and involved in a romantic storyline, as well as a scientific one.
One of the earliest B-movie portrayals of a fictional qualified scientist may be 1951's Flight to Mars which tells the story of male engineer and his assistant Carol Stafford, who earned her degree in "spaceship engineering".
1951 also saw Unknown World where a group of scientists, including Dr Joan Lindsey, drill into the earth to create an underground environment where humanity could escape and survive a future nuclear holocaust.
=== Late 20th century ===
After the Swinging Sixties in the west, women began to feature front and centre of large-budget movies, often in a more serious tone.
An early example was the 1970 film The Andromeda Strain which showed Dr Ruth Leavitt as one of several scientists investigating a deadly organism of extraterrestrial origin.
Other examples include;
=== Gorillas in the Mist (1988) ===
Gorillas in the Mist is a film based on the book with the same title by Dian Fossey and follows her as she leaves the United States to study gorillas in Rwanda and Uganda. As she bonds with the gorillas, she worries about poachers and devotes her time to protecting the animals. In the film, Fossey is said to be depicted as an independent woman, breaking the common trope of women being the homemaker. This may be seen as an unusual portrayal of women scientists and it concentrates on the scientific work, and does not have a romantic story attached to it.
=== Jurassic Park (1993) ===
The 1993 film Jurassic Park, based on the novel with the same title by Michael Crichton, depicts a fictional paleobotanist, Dr. Ellie Sattler. She is shown to have extensive knowledge about dinosaurs and plant life throughout the movie. She is said to be portrayed with great physical ability, allowing her to survive multiple attacks from dinosaurs.
=== Contact ===
Contact was released in 1997 and told the fictional story of Dr Eleanor "Ellie" Arroway, a SETI scientist who finds evidence of extraterrestrial life and is chosen by the government to make first contact.
=== Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000) ===
Nutty Professor II: The Klumps is the sequel to the 1996 slapstick, science-fiction dark comedy, The Nutty Professor. Janet Jackson portrays molecular biologist Denise Gains. Denise is the love-interest for the male hero, Sherman Klump. Gaines faces a dilemma where she must balance her professional career with her romantic relationships. In this film, she is hesitant to take a full professorship at the University of Maine, but she will be able to stay and pursue further research with Klump.
=== Gravity (2013) ===
The 2013 film Gravity, directed by Alfonso Cuarón and starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, is often cited as a feminist film due to Bullock's starring role as an astronaut.
The film has been critiqued that Gravity "proves that a woman can anchor an action-packed blockbuster that does not have to include violence, superheroes, weapons and/or huge death tolls." While the film's lead is a woman, she gets help from her male counterpart, played by Clooney. Some critics describe Bullock's character as "the very model of the damsel in distress," as she can never get out of a situation on her own and must lean on Clooney's character to do the heavy lifting. The role of Bullock's character is thought to be an act of defiant feminism, as she is the lead in a science fiction film, but some viewers find that the film actually subscribes to traditional gender stereotypes and does not portray Bullock's character as a true independent woman. In contrast, Vanessa Reich-Shackelford from Westcoast Women in Engineering, Science, and Technology while considering the character of Dr. Ryan Stone, wrote: "I came to realize that writers Alfonso (also director) and Jonás Cuarón had created one of the most positive representations of a woman in STEM on screen so far."

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=== Arrival (2016) ===
The 2016 film Arrival revolves around the character of linguist Dr. Louise Banks, played by Amy Adams, who facilitates the very first instance of human communicative contact with an alien population. The film makes an obvious effort at employing a feminist theme, primarily through the way the backstory shapes Dr. Banks and frames her as an accomplished professional and mother.
=== Hidden Figures ===
Hidden Figures was released in 2016 and told the true story of three female African-American mathematicians, Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson (engineer) who worked at NASA during the Space Race.
=== Black Panther (2018) ===
The critically acclaimed film Black Panther features Princess Shuri, a young, Black, female character who excels in the STEM field as an intelligent and creative technology whiz and inventor. Portrayed by Letitia Wright, Princess Shuri is the younger sister of T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman), the eventual king of Wakanda, and the mastermind behind harnessing the power of vibranium, specifically in the creation of the Black Panther suit.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has portrayed over 60 fictional scientists, about a quarter of them being women, including computer expert Dr Helen Cho, biologist Dr Maya Hensen and biochemist Agent Jemma Simmons.
== Archetypes of scientific women in films ==
Eva Flicker, writing in 2002, noted that in science fiction films, men are overwhelmingly portrayed as scientists, making up 82% of all film scientists. The majority of films that include female scientists and engineers as primary characters are placed into the action, adventure and comedy genre.
Women in majority of films including the science fiction genre, often fall into six categories:
=== The Old Maid ===
This type of woman scientist is "only interested in her work" and is often depicted having a nondescript appearance and style, with strong competency. Typically, as the film progresses, a man saves her. This male salvation consequently brings out the feminine side of "the old maid", after which she is intended to become more conventionally attractive. However, she loses credibility as an academic and suddenly makes more mistakes than when she did not focus as much on her appearance. Based on this type of story, Flicker concludes that "femininity and intelligence are mutually exclusive characteristics in a woman's film role." An example of this woman in a film can be seen in Spellbound, in the character Dr. Constance Peterson.
=== The Male Woman ===
This type of woman works with men in an all male environment. Because of this, she has a "harsh voice" and occasionally "succumbs to an unhealthy lifestyle," such as partaking in smoking and drinking, to fit in with her male counterparts. Flicker claims that this type of woman is "lost somewhere in the middle" of masculinity and femininity, meaning she is not as sexual a character as other women are, but she is also not on the same level as the men she works with. This decreases her credibility both as a woman and as one trying to fit into "a man's world." In the end, her heightened female emotions allow her to contribute to a solution, which is her redeeming quality as a character. The "male woman" character appears in the 1970 science fiction film Andromeda Strain.
=== The Naïve Expert ===
Seen in The Lost World: Jurassic Park, this woman scientist is described as a character that does minimal work. For the sake of the dramatization of the film, she is crucial, but typically she does not advance the story and does not contribute much to the solution. Instead, her femininity causes more trouble for the team of scientists. She is portrayed as young, attractive, and is subjected to experience feminine emotions which add an extra layer to the existing predicament, forcing the man to solve the problem to get the team out of trouble. She is "naïve in her actions," messing up every task that is given to her despite her extensive education and knowledge, while her male counterpart stands in stark contrast and ends up saving the day.
=== The Evil Plotter ===
The "evil plotter" woman is young and very beautiful, and she uses her feminine charm to trick the men into doing what she wants. She has an ulterior motive, which is on the opposite end of the spectrum from what the rest of the team is trying to accomplish. She is the character that the audience and the other characters despise by the end of the movie because she is devilishly smart and knows how to use her scientific knowledge and sexual prowess for evil. This character type was portrayed by Alison Doody as Dr. Elsa Schneider in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
=== The Daughter/Assistant ===
This role of female scientist encompasses many feminine stereotypes portrayed in movies. In this role the woman is subordinate to her male counterpart, who is either her father or her lover. She is smart and capable, but her secondary role does not allow her to demonstrate her abilities. Flicker writes that when this woman plays the role of lover to the male scientist, "her work place is limited to the bed." She is only good for sexual satisfaction, not for the degree she earned. The assistant role is seen in the female Dr. Medford in the film Them!, as she is portrayed alongside an older gentleman of the same name.

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=== The Lonely Heroine ===
This type of woman scientist is intelligent, attractive, and somewhat independent. Flicker says that she "has appropriated some male traits," such as losing herself in her work. She is both sexual and smart, and she manages to exhibit both qualities in the film. Despite this, she is still subordinate to the men on her team, and depends on them and their work to gain respect. She is the most progressive of the woman scientist types, but she lacks her own form of independence and still must rely on a sexual relationship with a man to be seen as someone. The "lonely heroine" type is best seen in Jodie Foster's portrayal of Elleonore Arroway in the film Contact.
== Objectification of women in film ==
Flicker argues that women are often pigeonholed into these six limiting roles when written in films. Each of these roles places the female scientist character on the sidelines, and does not allow her to be on the same level as her male counterpart(s). Although the women in these roles are educated, and often just as educated as the men on their team, they are used primarily as assistants and sexual characters. Producers strategically write women's roles for the male gaze, often making the female characters use their "weapons of a woman," such as sex appeal, to be attractive to male characters and viewers alike.
Feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey writes that in film, women are passive objects of the male gaze. Mulvey writes that movies fulfill "a primordial wish for pleasurable looking," and that male audiences are largely catered to in the film industry. In her analysis of film, she states that the lead woman in a film often falls in love with her male counterpart, and when she does, she only exists as a character to please him. Through the male character's ownership of the woman, the men in the audience find themselves owning her as well.
The male gaze is a significant aspect of traditional feminist film analysis and thus is an important factor to consider in relation to female scientists and how they are portrayed in films. Typically women are viewed as sexual objects for the pleasure of males who view these films. This has a direct effect on how people interpret women scientists and their role in movies. Instead of being portrayed as superheroes, they begin to obtain a reputation based on sexual appeal.
Considering superhero films, Amy Shackelford mentions how the male gaze is applied to sexualize the female character, further misinterpreting women in the media through visual depiction. Looking at these particular films, screenwriters have a difficult time accomplishing the task of writing female characters. Shackelford also states that it seems like the only way these screenwriters know how to portray female characters in superhero films power is to sexualize them.
Judith Mayne supports Laura Mulvey's view. She writes that "most feminist film theory and criticism of the last decade" has been in written in response to Mulvey's 1975 assessment, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema." She argues that understanding the often sexist portrayal of women in film requires "an understanding of patriarchy as oppressive and as vulnerable." Mayne goes deeper in her argument claiming that feminist film theory inspired feminist documentaries that are "aimed at rejecting stereotyped images of women." This criticism also opens the question about "the notion of woman as 'image.'".
Law professor Sarah Eschholz and her colleagues Jana Bufkin and Jenny Long write that in film, women are often young, and female characters are rarely played by middle aged or older women. Often the only role available to these women is that of the mother, who is not meant to be a leading character. They write that "females' primary societal value is based on physical appearance and youthful beauty." According to their assessment, men are valued at all ages, and arguably more so as they age and become wiser. Most women in film are 35 years old or younger, while their male costars are often older. Despite women in film having impressive credentials and extensive educations, they are often reduced to objects for looking, due to a reluctance to hire an older, less attractive woman for a major role.
In the traditional husband and wife family, women are often portrayed as the second in command. Their husbands take on the role of family head and get to maintain a bachelor level of freedom, which allows them to work and spend time out with the guys. Eschholz, Bufkin, and Long report on studies that show female characters are more likely to be married and have a family than male characters. Men have the freedom to work and be protagonists through their actions, while their wives or girlfriends are forced to take a back seat in the story to care for the family.

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== Opposing views ==
Noël Carroll references Mulvey's pivotal paper on psychoanalysis and visual pleasure in his writing, and plays devil's advocate to her claim that women are the only subjects of gaze. Carroll acknowledges and agrees with Mulvey's assessment that women in film are strategically placed for the male gaze despite the role of their actual character. Carroll states, "Women in Hollywood film are staged and blocked for male erotic contemplation and pleasure." However, Carroll adds that men in films are also strategically placed for the purpose of pleasure. He cites such examples as Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, big bodybuilding actors "whose scenes are blocked and staged precisely to afford spectacles of bulging pectorals and other parts." Similarly to actresses, male actors are also heralded for their facial attractiveness and are sometimes lauded exclusively for being attractive. As an example, Carroll offers Leslie Howard, a male actor who appeared in Of Human Bondage and Gone With the Wind, who was highly successful in the industry despite being "staggeringly ineffectual." According to Carroll, being subject to the erotic gaze of the audience is not an exclusively female burden; rather, both sexes fall prey to Hollywood camera angles that best show off their bodies.
Kristin Thompson, an American film theorist, analyzes the film Laura. In her analysis, she claims that the main character, Laura, was written to embody the role of "passive visual object," which Mulvey and Flicker claim is an extremely prevalent role of women in film. In the film, the main protagonist spends much of the film admiring an idealised painting of Laura, rather than communicating with an independent human being. However, Thompson, like Carroll, does not believe that this passive role is limited to women in the industry. Thompson claims that Mulvey's assessment stating that women are used as objects and men cannot handle being the subject of gaze is "common but not universal" in the film industry. She claims that men are also presented in flashy ways in film, and gives the example of Howard Keel in the film Show Boat. Her analysis aligns with Carroll's conclusion that both sexes must be the subject of the audience's gaze, and that objectification is all-encompassing.
== Impact of film portrayals of women ==
Studies have shown that female scientists are either underrepresented or misrepresented as film characters. As Eva Flicker writes, film has a way of taking social realities and expressing certain images of women through media formats. Such media is then able to influence the audience by creating a mirror of metaphors, myths, opinions, and a social memory contributing to stereotypes.
The existence of gender-STEM stereotyping is not a new phenomenon. Such stereotyping has been shown to be prevalent among people in a broad range of ages and life stages, from early childhood to college. However, it has been demonstrated that increasing exposure to representations that break the stereotypes of men as the default in STEM can successfully begin to undermine these mental correlations and help to prevent perpetuation of these narratives. This is an example that can be explained by the social role theory of social psychology and the distinct role of culture.
== Impact of Television/ Film Crossover Representation ==
While most films are a one-off presentation of a story, TV shows which lead to a film can portray characters and ideas in a more long-term and rounded manner.
One example of this can be seen in the X-Files's Dana Scully. The Scully Effect is widely documented as having encouraged a large number of women to go into science. Running from 1993 to 2002, the weekly portrayal of a medical doctor carrying out investigations with the FBI, followed by her story on the big screen (The X-Files and The X-Files: I Want to Believe) has had a huge impact on science.
A much earlier example is that of Communications Officer Lt Nyota Uhura on Star Trek. As a woman of colour portraying a military linguist, cryptographer and mathematician, Uhura has had an unprecedented influence on women, and men, around the world.
== Meta Analysis ==
A 2007 meta-analysis by Jocelyn Steinke of Western Michigan University and colleagues looked at gender stereotyping by children who have been exposed to images of scientists through films, television shows, and books. One study examined elementary school students taking the Draw-a-Scientist-Test, or DAST. The results showed that out of more than 4,000 children who participated in the DAST, only 28 girls drew female scientists. Another study of 1,137 Korean students between the ages of eleven and fifteen found that 74% of them drew male scientists, while only 16% had depicted female scientists. Through the influence of mass media outlets, statistics from the National Science Foundation 2000 indicate that women make up only 19.4% of the STEM industry including science and mathematics. As a result, most children in the major developmental years are subjected to accepting traditional stereotypes of women being passive, emotional, physically weak and dependent, as depicted in films. The study posits that gender stereotypes can be the product of an individual's surrounding environment, which can influence how they view themselves and others around them.
As an increasing number of adolescents use social media platforms, the reinforcement of traditional cultural norms is at an all-time high. Even before young women reach adolescence, they may be exposed to social media perpetuating the stereotype of women as dependent, emotional and less capable beings.
An increasing interest in science in real-life and on-screen is linked. As Mae Jemison (a life-long Star Trek fan) became the first black woman to travel in space and the first real-life astronaut to appear on Star Trek, this link can be celebrated for changes it brings across society.
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The Promoting Women in Entrepreneurship Act in the USA (Pub. L. 1156 (text) (PDF), H.R. 255) is a 2017 public law amendment to the Science and Engineering Equal Opportunities Act (Pub. L. 96516) to authorize the National Science Foundation to encourage its entrepreneurial programs to recruit and support women to extend their focus beyond the laboratory and into the commercial world.
== Background ==
The Promoting Women in Entrepreneurship Act was introduced in the United States House of Representatives on January 4, 2017, by Representative Elizabeth Esty of Connecticut and signed into law by President Donald Trump on February 28, 2017.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women account for 47% of the workforce, but make up only 25.6 percent of computer and mathematical occupations. In addition, only 15.4 percent of architecture and engineering jobs are filled by women. Congress also found that only 26 percent of women who earned STEM degrees actually worked in STEM related jobs. The president stated, “(Pub. L. 96516) enables the National Science Foundation to support women inventors of which there are many researchers and scientists in bringing their discoveries to the business world, championing science and entrepreneurship and creating new ways to improve peoples lives.” Trump signed the bill in a room full of women including Representative Barbara Comstock, who introduced the Inspire Women Act, Senator Heidi Heitkamp, and First Lady Melania Trump. The bill was supported by both parties, with 36 Democrats and 8 Republicans signing as co-sponsors.
== Impact ==
The bill was designed to primarily improve the programs in place at the National Science Foundation in order to encourage more women to enter into the STEM fields. The Science and Engineering Equal Opportunities Act allocates funding for educational programs and for research in STEM fields, and this bill adds the ability for the Science Foundation to allocate new funding towards incentivizing women to join their educational and entrepreneurial programs. There has been little news regarding this act and its effects recently and the expected results have yet to come to fruition. However, the act still represents a trend within the Trump administration with regard to technology and women. The president has said that this issue was, "going to be addressed by my administration over the years with more and more of these bills coming out and address the barriers faced by female entrepreneurs and by those in STEM fields." Despite this, since the day of the law being signed, the Trump administration has yet to give a statement regarding future legislation that would further help improve the numbers of women in science and technology.
== See also ==
Timeline of women's legal rights in the United States (other than voting)
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The US-International Women in Science Dialogue was a conference held in June 2011 that brought sixteen women scientists from different countries to talk about their experiences as women in science. It was moderated by Sherburne Abbott. The discussions included public questions from Twitter.
== Attendees ==
Ana Lucia Assad, Ministry of Science and Technology, Brazil.
Ansam Sawalha, West Bank
and others.
== External links ==
"US-International Women in Science Dialogue" on YouTube.
== References ==

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Women Are Boring is an online publication featuring research by women. It aims to improve the visibility of women researchers, in response to the poor representation of discoveries by women in media outlets that quote or cover academic research. Women Are Boring is primarily a platform for women to post summaries or synopses of research that they have published in a different venue, on any topic.
== History and motivation ==
Grace McDermott and Catherine Connolly founded the publication while they were PhD students at Dublin City University in May of 2016. McDermott and Connolly attributed their decision to found Women Are Boring to the under-representation of women in media, and particularly the underrepresentation of women scholars in news about research. They were specifically motivated by a study by The Global Media Monitoring Project which concluded that "only 24% of the persons heard, read about or seen in news media are women", and that only 28% of the sources cited in Irish news media were women, with only a very small proportion of those in expert roles like scientific or academic sources. McDermott and Connolly have noted the contrast between the dearth of women researchers in popular media and the plethora of research by women that they consistently encountered as PhD students.
McDermott and Connolly chose the name "Women Are Boring" for their platform partly to alter the Google Search results for that phrase, which they noted had previously consisted of results that were overwhelmingly demeaning to women. It is also intended to ironically contrast the attitude that women are boring with the interesting information that is shared by women on the platform, to demonstrate the absurdity of the claim that women are boring.
Women Are Boring was founded at a similar time to other efforts to increase the visibility of women academics online and specifically in news media, such as Women Also Know Stuff and 500 Women Scientists. It has also been compared to The Bearded Lady Project, the Athena SWAN Program, and the Dangerous Women Project of International Women's Day 2016.
== Contributions ==
Women Are Boring features research summaries and research contributions from women. Most contributors are academics, but contributions also come from women researchers who do not work in academia. The contributions are specifically meant for a general audience, and are intended to be accessible to any interested reader, rather than appealing exclusively to other researchers. Although founders McDermott and Connolly both studied foreign policy and international affairs, with McDermott studying in the School of Communications and Connolly studying in the School of Law and Government at Dublin City University, there are no restrictions on the topics accepted by Women Are Boring. Shortly after its founding, in July 2016, a Dublin City University news release noted that it had already covered topics including "women in ISIS, gender equality in Northern Ireland and Scotland's health inequalities", and had then received "12,000 views from more than 94 countries". By 2017, about one year after the website's founding, Stellar Magazine reported that Women Are Boring had featured contributions in areas "from US foreign policy to William Shakespeare". Women Are Boring specifically aims to promote interdisciplinary research, and facilitate networking of scholars across traditional disciplinary boundaries.
Women Are Boring does not publish full research papers, but rather features summaries or synopses which link readers to full research projects, a process which has been compared with the research summaries available on Wikipedia. Although the website does not publish full research papers, some original early-stage research contributions to Women Are Boring that were not already published in full elsewhere have subsequently been expanded by their authors and published in peer-reviewed academic journals.
== References ==
== External links ==
Official website

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Women at NASA highlights the scientists, engineers, managers, flight controllers, and astronauts whose work has shaped the United States civil space program from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics era to the present, with their roles and contributions varying significantly over time.
Women entered NACA in the 1920s as technical specialists, including physicist Pearl I. Young, the first woman hired as a professional employee at Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory in 1922, and expanded in the 1940s to large pools of "human computers" who performed critical aeronautical and astronautical calculations by hand at Langley and other facilities. Over time those roles widened into engineering, science leadership, flight operations, and spaceflight, culminating in major program firsts and center leadership positions across the agency.
Throughout the 1930s to the present, more women joined the NASA teams not only at Langley Memorial, but at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Glenn Research Center, and other numerous NASA sites throughout the United States.[2] As the space program has grown, women have advanced into many roles, including astronauts.
NASA's first six female astronaut candidates were selected in 1978 at Johnson Space Center, followed by decades of mission milestones and leadership appointments across multiple centers. By the 2010s women led directorates and centers, commanded missions from Mission Control, and were tapped for Artemis lunar crews. In 2020 NASA named its headquarters the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters to honor the agency's first Black female engineer who began her career at Langley Research Center, underscoring the historical arc from "hidden figures" to modern leadership.
== History ==
=== 1920s1940s ===
Women joined NACA laboratories as professional staff in the interwar period. Pearl I. Young arrived at Langley in 1922 and later served as Chief Technical Editor, an early example of women in technical leadership. Young was the second female physicist working for the federal government at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), at Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory building 1202 in Langley, Virginia. During World War II and the early Cold War, Langley and other sites hired large cohorts of women mathematicians as "computers".
Many, including Dorothy Vaughan, Mary W. Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden, advanced into engineering and programming during NASA's transition to electronic computation and the Space Age.
=== 1960s ===
During the 1960s, women initially worked in support roles as administrators, secretaries, doctors, psychologists, and later as engineers. NASA began actively recruiting women and minorities for the space program during this decade. By the end of the 1960s, NASA had employed thousands of women.
Women such as Mary Shep Burton, Gloria B. Martinez (the first Spanish woman hired by NASA), Cathy Osgood, and Shirley Hunt worked in the computer division, while Sue Erwin, Lois Ransdell, and Maureen Bowen served as secretaries for various members of the Mission and Flight Control teams. Dana Ulery became the first woman engineer hired at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Despite her qualifications, she was classified only as a junior engineer, and for more than seven years, no other woman engineer was hired at JPL. Donna Shirley also worked at JPL as a mission engineer during this period. Dr. Carolyn Huntoon pioneered research into astronaut metabolism and other physiological systems. Margaret Hamilton served as the guidance computer lead programmer for the Apollo program, while Judy Sullivan was the lead biomedical engineer for the Apollo 11 mission.
Astronomer Nancy Grace Roman, known as the "Mother of Hubble," led NASA's first space astronomy program. Planetary and space scientists based at NASA centers and JPL, including Marcia Neugebauer, made foundational measurements of the solar wind.
Despite facing significant challenges in establishing themselves within the organization, several women made groundbreaking contributions during this period. Katherine Johnson became one of the most prominent figures in NASA history, advancing through the ranks as a Black woman to become one of the most respected engineers on the Apollo mission. Her success represented a major milestone for both African Americans and women at NASA and served as an inspiration to the general public. Along with Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson performed critical mathematical calculations to verify spacecraft launch computations. These women served as pioneers, paving the way for the growing presence of women at NASA.
However, acceptance of women in the space program was not universal. In 1962, George Low, NASA's Chief of Manned Spaceflight, opposed the inclusion of women, telling Congress that working with women would delay his work. That same year, John F. Kennedy signed the President's Commission on the Status of Women to promote gender equality in the workforce. This eventually led James Webb, NASA's administrator, to create an agency-wide policy directive stating that NASA would provide equal opportunities for all qualified individuals. Despite this policy, no women were selected for the astronaut corps in the 1963, 1965, 1966, or 1967 selections.
=== 1970s ===
In 1972, NASA began accepting applications from women for astronaut positions for the first time, coinciding with the military's decision to begin accepting women for pilot training programs that would eventually provide pathways to astronaut careers.
In 1977 when actress Nichelle Nichols assisted NASA in attracting female candidates. Nichols' portrayal of Lieutenant Uhura on Star Trek had inspired many young women to pursue careers as astronauts. Among those influenced was Dr. Mae Jemison, who would become the first Black woman astronaut in 1992.
Dr. Carolyn Huntoon declined an opportunity to become an astronaut herself in order to serve on the astronaut selection committee. NASA assigned Huntoon to travel throughout the United States, encouraging women to apply for astronaut positions and pursue careers in STEM fields. In 1979, Kathryn Sullivan piloted a NASA WB-57F reconnaissance aircraft to 63,300 feet altitude, setting an unofficial altitude record for American women.
NASA's 1978 astronaut selection included the agency's first six female candidates: Sally Ride, Judith Resnik, Anna Fisher, Rhea Seddon, Kathryn D. Sullivan, and Shannon Lucid.
=== 1980s ===

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On June 18, 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman astronaut to travel to space. More than a year later, Judith Resnik flew aboard Space Shuttle Discovery and became the second American woman in space. Kathryn D. Sullivan became the first American woman to perform a spacewalk in 1984. In 1988, Ellen Ochoa joined NASA and became the first Hispanic woman astronaut. Ochoa completed four space shuttle missions aboard Discovery and Atlantis, accumulating nearly 1,000 hours in space. In 1985, Shannon Lucid completed her first spaceflight and by the end of her career had spent 188 days in space. Lucid held the American record for most cumulative days in space until 2002.
In the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster two women died: Christa McAuliffe, who would have been the first teacher in space, and Judith Resnik, the second American woman to fly in space.
=== 1990s ===
By the 1990s, NASA had expanded its research into the physiological effects of spaceflight on women's bodies. Carolyn Huntoon delivered a keynote address in 1994 at the 2nd Annual Women's Health and Space Luncheon, highlighting NASA's previously unrecognized contributions to women's health research. On February 3, 1995, Colonel Eileen Collins became the first woman to pilot a U.S. spacecraft. During this period, Shannon Lucid, a flight engineer, completed five space missions and served as chief scientist for NASA at its headquarters in Washington, DC.
In 1999, Eileen Collins became the first woman to command a Space Shuttle mission.
=== 2000s ===
The 2000s saw a significant increase in women's participation in NASA's planetary missions. Women were increasingly appointed to roles as Co-Investigators and Participating Scientists. The percentage of women in these positions rose from below 10% in the 1990s to approximately 30% by the 2000s, with particular growth in Co-Investigator roles.
The 2003 Columbia disaster claimed the lives of two women astronauts, Kalpana Chawla and Laurel Clark, along with the entire STS-107 crew when the shuttle broke apart during reentry on February 1, 2003.
Pamela Melroy completed several missions to the International Space Station aboard the shuttles Discovery and Atlantis. A veteran military pilot with more than 5,000 hours of flight time, Melroy brought extensive aviation experience to her astronaut career. In 2007, Peggy Whitson became the first woman to command the International Space Station. Whitson later became the first woman to serve as Chief of the Astronaut Office and commanded the ISS on two separate occasions. During her time in space, Whitson conducted numerous experiments that advanced space technologies still in use today.
Also in 2007, Barbara Morgan became the first teacher to travel to space. Morgan had originally been selected as the backup candidate for the Teacher in Space program in 1985, when Christa McAuliffe was chosen as the primary candidate. Following McAuliffe's death in the 1986 Challenger accident, Morgan was unable to complete her mission until 2007.
=== 2010s2020s ===
By the 2010s and 2020s women regularly held senior leadership posts and set mission records. Ellen Ochoa served as director of Johnson Space Center from 2013 to 2018, becoming the center's first Hispanic director and its second woman to lead the center. On October 18, 2019, Christina Koch and Jessica Meir completed the first all-woman spacewalk. Koch then concluded a 328-day mission on February 6, 2020, the longest single spaceflight by a woman to that date.
In June 2020 the agency named its headquarters for Mary W. Jackson, followed by a public naming ceremony in February 2021. Pamela Melroy was sworn in as Deputy Administrator of NASA in June 2021, and that same month Vanessa Wyche became director of Johnson Space Center, the first Black woman to lead a NASA center. In February 2023 heliophysicist Nicola Fox was selected to lead the Science Mission Directorate as associate administrator. In January 2022 Caltech named planetary scientist Laurie Leshin director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the lab's first woman director.
In April 2021 MiMi Aung led the Ingenuity team to the first powered flight on another world, and in February 2021 Swati Mohan served as guidance, navigation, and control operations lead during Mars 2020 entry, descent, and landing. NASA named the initial Artemis Team in December 2020, which included nine women, and in April 2023 assigned Christina Koch to Artemis II.
On October 5, 2022, Nicole Aunapu Mann launched as commander of Crew-5 and became the first Native American woman in space. Loral O'Hara returned on April 6, 2024 after 204 days on the space station. In operations, NASA named Holly Ridings the agency's first female chief flight director in 2018, she moved to Gateway leadership in 2022, and in 2023 the agency selected Emily Nelson as chief flight director.
In 2024 Sunita Williams piloted the first crewed flight of Boeing Starliner during the Crew Flight Test, the first time a woman flew on the first flight of a crewed spacecraft. After NASA decided in August 2024 to return Starliner to Earth uncrewed due to technical issues with the spacecraft's propulsion system and concerns about crew safety, Williams and commander Barry Wilmore remained aboard the station and returned with SpaceX's Crew-9 on March 18, 2025.
== Women in Space Program ==
The Mercury 13 program marked an early attempt to include women in U.S. space programs, though the original Mercury Seven astronauts selected for NASA's first human spaceflight program were all men. Randy Lovelace and Don Flickinger, who were involved in the selection process, considered including women in this project. Lovelace believed that women could perform the same tasks in space as men. In 1960, Lovelace and Flickinger met Jerrie Cobb, who played a major role in recruiting and testing women for the program.

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The Women in Space Program (launched December 20, 1959) was a revived version of the Women in Space Earliest program that had been cancelled in November 1959. Like the program for men, this required candidate testing. However, the testing parameters were modified to accommodate women. In the screening phase, men were required to be degree-holding jet pilots who had attended military test pilot school and had a minimum of 1,500 hours of flying time. Since women were excluded from these opportunities, the screening criteria shifted to women with commercial pilot licenses, particularly those who served as flight instructors. Cobb, who underwent testing first, became the leader of the FLATs (Fellow Lady Astronaut Trainees) along with 12 other women, totaling 13 women (hence the media designation "Mercury 13"). Although Cobb was assigned as a NASA consultant and continued the testing process, women were still not trained as astronauts.
During the examinations, some scientists believed that women demonstrated advantages over men for space missions. For example, women's internal organs were thought to be better suited to withstand radiation and vibrations. Due to women's generally smaller size, spacecraft and flights would be less expensive if women were used as astronauts. However, testing for women was cancelled after it was discovered that NASA had not issued an official request for such testing. Lovelace decided to discontinue the program, which created an uncomfortable situation at NASA. Meanwhile, Jerrie Cobb, who had assumed leadership and facilitated the testing for women, was removed from her position at NASA.
== Events and accomplishments ==
Since Sally Ride became the first American woman astronaut, 43 American women had traveled to space by 2012, compared to only 12 women from other countries, with women comprising approximately 10 percent of NASA's astronaut corps as of 2009.
1922, Pearl I. Young hired as NACA's first female professional employee.
1950s1960s, "human computers" at Langley advanced into engineering and programming, including Dorothy Vaughan, Mary W. Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden.
1959, Brigadier General Don Flickinger, a member of the NASA Special Advisory Committee on Life Sciences, along with Dr. W. Randolph "Randy" Lovelace II, inaugurated the Woman in Space Earliest (WISE) program
1960, Dr. Nancy Grace Roman became the first woman to hold an executive position at NASA
1961, Jerrie Cobb was appointed as a NASA administration consultant
1961, John F. Kennedy stated in the American Girl magazine that both sexes are needed in America's space program
1963, Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to be in space
1978, NASA selected its first six female astronaut candidates: Anna Fisher, Shannon W. Lucid, Judith A. Resnik, Sally K. Ride, Margaret R. Seddon, and Kathryn D. Sullivan.
1983, Sally Ride flew as the first American woman in space.
1984, Kathryn D. Sullivan performed the first American spacewalk by a woman.
1986, Judith A. Resnik and payload specialist, Sharon Christa McAuliffe, died in the Challenger accident.
1992, Mae Jemison became first black woman in space
1993: Ellen Ochoa became the first Hispanic woman in space
1994: Carolyn Huntoon became the first woman center director at NASA (at Johnson Space Center)
1996, Shannon Lucid became the first woman to receive the Congressional Space Medal of Honor
1999, Eileen Collins commanded STS93, the first Shuttle mission led by a woman.
2005, Shana Dale became the first woman Deputy Administrator of NASA
2007, Peggy Whitson became the first woman to command the International Space Station and later in 2017 the first to command it twice. She also served as the first female, nonmilitary Chief of the Astronaut Office.
2018, Holly Ridings became NASA's first female Chief Flight Director.
2019, Christina Koch and Jessica Meir completed the first allwoman spacewalk.
2020, NASA renamed its headquarters for Mary W. Jackson and held a public naming ceremony.
2021, MiMi Aung led the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter team to the first powered flight on another world. During Mars 2020 entry, descent, and landing, Swati Mohan served as guidance, navigation, and control operations lead.
2023, Christina Koch was assigned as a mission specialist for Artemis II, the first crewed lunar flyby of the program.
== Women at NASA ==

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=== Astronauts and astronaut managers ===
Ellen S. Baker, physician and veteran of three shuttle flights (1989-1995)
Kayla Barron, submarine warfare officer and Crew-3 mission specialist on Expeditions 66 and 67 (2021-2022)
Catherine G. "Cady" Coleman, chemist and veteran of STS-73, STS-93, and Expedition 26/27 (1995-2011)
Tracy Caldwell Dyson, chemist and veteran of STS-118 and Expeditions 23/24 and 71 (2007-2010, 2024)
Kalpana Chawla, aeronautical engineer, flew STS-87 and STS-107, died in the Columbia accident (1997, 2003)
Mary L. Cleave, environmental engineer and veteran of STS-61B and STS-30 (1985, 1989)
Eileen Collins, test pilot and first woman Shuttle commander, veteran of four missions including STS-93 and STS-114 (1995-2005)
Nancy J. Currie-Gregg, engineer and veteran of four shuttle flights STS-57, STS-70, STS-88, STS-109 (1993-2002)
Nancy Jan Davis, aerospace engineer and veteran of STS-47, STS-60, and STS-85 (1992-1997)
Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, science educator and STS-131 mission specialist (2010)
Yvonne Cagle, physician and astronaut selected in 1996, service in astronaut office and medical roles (selected 1996)
Anna Fisher, emergency physician and STS-51-A mission specialist, first mother in space (1984)
Linda M. Godwin, physicist and veteran of four shuttle flights STS-37, STS-59, STS-76, STS-108 (1991-2001)
Susan J. Helms, USAF engineer and veteran of four shuttle flights and Expedition 2 long-duration mission (1993-2001)
Kathryn P. Hire, operations manager and mission specialist on STS-90 and STS-130 (1998, 2010)
Joan Higginbotham, electrical engineer and STS-116 mission specialist (2006)
Marsha Ivins, engineer and veteran of five shuttle flights (1990-2001)
Mae Jemison, physician and STS-47 mission specialist, first Black woman in space (1992)
Janet L. Kavandi, chemist and veteran of three shuttle flights STS-91, STS-99, STS-104 (1998-2001)
Christa McAuliffe, Teacher in Space designee, died in the Challenger accident (1986)
K. Megan McArthur, oceanographer, veteran of Hubble servicing STS-125 and Crew-2 long-duration mission (2009, 2021)
Anne McClain, Army aviator and Expedition 58/59 flight engineer with two spacewalks (2018-2019)
Jessica Meir, biologist and Expedition 61/62 flight engineer, participant in the first all-woman spacewalk (2019-2020)
Pamela Melroy, test pilot and Shuttle commander, veteran of three missions including STS-120 (2000-2007)
Jasmin Moghbeli, U.S. Marine test pilot and commander of Crew-7 long-duration ISS mission (2023-2024)
Lisa Nowak, STS-121 mission specialist (2006)
Nicole A. Mann, U.S. Marine Corps test pilot and Crew-5 commander, first Native American woman in space (2022-2023)
Ellen Ochoa, electrical engineer and veteran of four shuttle flights, later director of Johnson Space Center (1993-2002)
Sally Ride, physicist and mission specialist on STS-7 and STS-41-G, first American woman in space (1983-1984)
Judith Resnik, electrical engineer and STS-41-D mission specialist, died in the Challenger accident (1986)
Kathleen Rubins, microbiologist and Expedition 48/49 and 63/64 flight engineer, two long-duration missions (2016, 2020-2021)
Rhea Seddon, surgeon and veteran of STS-51-D, STS-40, and STS-58 (1985-1993)
Shannon W. Lucid, biochemist and veteran of five flights including a 188-day Mir mission, first U.S. woman to receive the Congressional Space Medal of Honor (1985-1996)
Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, Navy engineer and veteran of two shuttle missions with five EVAs (2006, 2008)
Nicole Stott, engineer and veteran of Expedition 20/21 and STS-133 (2009, 2011)
Kathryn D. Sullivan, geologist and first American woman to perform a spacewalk, veteran of three shuttle missions (1984-1992)
Tamara E. Jernigan, astrophysicist and veteran of five shuttle missions (1991-1999)
Laurel Clark, physician and STS-107 mission specialist, died in the Columbia accident (2003)
Peggy Whitson, biochemist and veteran of three long-duration ISS expeditions, first woman to command ISS twice and first female Chief of the Astronaut Office (2002-2017)
Stephanie Wilson, aerospace engineer and veteran of three shuttle missions STS-121, STS-120, STS-131 (2006-2010)
Shannon Walker, physicist and veteran of two ISS expeditions, briefly ISS commander on Expedition 65 (2010, 2020-2021)
Sunita Williams, Navy test pilot and veteran of two long-duration ISS missions, later led the extended Starliner Crew Flight Test stay (2006-2007, 2012, 2024-2025)
Janice Voss, engineer and veteran of five shuttle flights (1993-2000)
Mary Ellen Weber, chemist and STS-70 and STS-101 mission specialist (1995, 2000)
Christina Koch, electrical engineer and veteran of a 328-day ISS mission, assigned to Artemis II (2019-2020)
Jeanette Epps, aerospace engineer and Crew-8 mission specialist on a long-duration ISS mission (2024)
Jessica Watkins, geologist and Crew-4 mission specialist for a six-month ISS mission (2022)
Loral O'Hara, aerospace engineer and Expedition 70 flight engineer, 204 days on orbit (2023-2024)
Zena Cardman, geobiologist and commander of Crew-11 on her first spaceflight (2025)

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=== Scientists, engineers, and technologists ===
Valerie Thomas, data scientist at Goddard and inventor of the Illusion Transmitter (1964-1995)
Pearl I. Young, physicist and first female professional at NACA Langley, later Chief Technical Editor (1922-1936)
Dorothy Vaughan, mathematician and supervisor of the West Area Computers at NACA Langley (1943-1958)
Mary W. Jackson, aerospace engineer and NASA's first Black female engineer (1958-1985)
Katherine Johnson, mathematician whose orbital mechanics work supported Mercury, Apollo, and Shuttle missions (1953-1986)
Christine Darden, aeronautical engineer and sonic boom expert, later Senior Executive at NASA Langley (1967-2007)
Annie Easley, computer scientist at Lewis, pioneer in codes for propulsion and energy systems (1955-1989)
Miriam D. Mann, among the earliest West Area human computers at Langley, noted for desegregation advocacy (1943-1940s)
Melba Roy Mouton, mathematician at Goddard who led Echo satellite orbit tracking and programming teams (1959-1973)
Susan G. Finley, JPL engineer who began as a human computer in 1958, the lab's longest-serving employee (1958-present)
Barbara Askins, Marshall chemist who invented a photographic enhancement process, National Inventor of the Year (1978)
Margaret Hamilton, computer scientist who led Apollo guidance computer software at MIT IL (1965-1972)
Nancy Grace Roman, astronomer and first Chief of Astronomy at NASA, "Mother of Hubble" (1959-1979)
Marcia Neugebauer, JPL space plasma physicist who helped make the first in-situ solar wind measurements (1960s-1990s)
Claudia Alexander, JPL geophysicist, last Galileo project manager and U.S. Rosetta project scientist (1999-2015)
Amy Mainzer, astronomer, principal investigator for NEOWISE and NEO Surveyor (2010-present)
Natalie Batalha, astrophysicist, Kepler science leader and project scientist at NASA Ames (2010-2018)
Linda J. Spilker, JPL planetary scientist, Cassini project scientist then Voyager project scientist (2010-2017, 2022-present)
Sarah Milkovich, JPL science operations leader for Mars 2020 Perseverance (2015-present)
Zainab Nagin Cox, JPL spacecraft operations engineer on Galileo, Mars rovers, Kepler, and InSight (1993-present)
MiMi Aung, JPL engineer who led the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter through first flight on another world (2014-2021)
Swati Mohan, guidance, navigation, and control operations lead for Perseverance entry, descent, and landing (2021)
Diana Trujillo, JPL mission operations leader for Perseverance and Spanish-language EDL host (2021)
Farah Alibay, JPL systems engineer on InSight, Perseverance, and Ingenuity (2014-present)
Elizabeth "Zibi" Turtle, planetary scientist and principal investigator of the Dragonfly mission to Titan (2019-present)
Laurie Leshin, planetary geochemist and first woman to direct JPL (2022-2025)
Lisa Pratt, astrobiologist and NASA Planetary Protection Officer (2018-2021)
Camille Wardrop Alleyne, aerospace engineer and NASA executive for ISS, CLPS, and commercial LEO programs (2003-2024)
Michelle Thaller, astronomer and science communicator at NASA Goddard, assistant director then deputy for science communication (2009-2024)
=== Flight operations and leadership ===
Holly Ridings, first female Chief Flight Director at NASA, later Gateway program leader (2018-2022, 2023-present)
Ginger Kerrick, first Hispanic female NASA flight director, ISS and Shuttle operations (2005-2012)
Ellen Stofan, NASA Chief Scientist and principal adviser on science programs (2013-2016)
Nicola Fox, Associate Administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate (2023-present)
Lori Garver, NASA Deputy Administrator who advanced commercial crew and cargo partnerships (2009-2013)
Dava Newman, NASA Deputy Administrator (2015-2017)
Pamela Melroy, NASA Deputy Administrator and former Shuttle commander (2021-present)
Vanessa Wyche, director of Johnson Space Center, first Black woman to lead a NASA center (2021-present)
Janet Petro, director of Kennedy Space Center (2021-present)
JoAnn H. Morgan, instrumentation controller for Apollo 11, first woman at a Firing Room console (1969)
=== Active Women Astronauts ===
Serena M. Auñón-Chancellor, physician and Expedition 56/57 flight engineer (2018)
Tracy Caldwell Dyson, chemist and veteran of STS-118 and Expeditions 23/24 and 71 (2007-2010, 2024)
Jeanette J. Epps, aerospace engineer and Crew-8 mission specialist on a long-duration ISS mission (2024)
Christina Hammock Koch, electrical engineer, 328-day ISS mission, assigned to Artemis II (2019-2020)
Nicole Mann, U.S. Marine Corps test pilot and Crew-5 commander, first Native American woman in space (2022-2023)
Megan McArthur, oceanographer and veteran of STS-125 and Crew-2 long-duration mission (2009, 2021)
Anne C. McClain, helicopter test pilot and Expedition 58/59 flight engineer with two spacewalks (2018-2019)
Jessica U. Meir, biologist and Expedition 61/62 flight engineer, participant in the first all-woman spacewalk (2019-2020)
Kathleen Rubins, microbiologist and Expedition 48/49 and 63/64 flight engineer, first to sequence DNA in space (2016, 2020-2021)
Shannon Walker, physicist and veteran of two ISS expeditions, briefly ISS commander on Expedition 65 (2010, 2020-2021)
Stephanie D. Wilson, aerospace engineer and veteran of three shuttle flights, Artemis team member (2006-2010)
Sunita L. Williams, Navy test pilot and veteran of two long-duration ISS missions and the extended Starliner Crew Flight Test stay (2006-2007, 2012, 2024-2025)
== See also ==
Women in space
List of female astronauts
Women in science
Hidden Figures
NASA
Women's history
== References ==
== External links ==
"The Women of NASA". National Women's History Museum.
"Women @ NASA" NASA

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title: "Women in Cell Biology"
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Women in Cell Biology (WCIB) is a subcommittee of the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) created to promote women in cell biology and present awards.
== History ==
A group of women were unhappy with the lack of recognition in ASCB. In 1971, Virginia Walbot gathered a group of women to meet at the annual ASCB meetings and WICB began. The goal was to provide a space for women to talk and network with other women in the field, learn about job opportunities, and promote women in academia. Newsletters were distributed containing job listings and news of powerful women in biology. Originally, WICB was not accepted by ASCB; the newsletter was not funded and later discontinued in the 1970s. WICB was established as a standing committee within ASCB in 1993.
The formation of the committee correlates with increased women representation at the annual meeting. Between 1967-1977, there was only one woman speaker at the annual meeting; between 1990-1999, 21% of speakers were women. These numbers increased to parity with men by 2020 with equal numbers as speakers and as award recipients.
== Activities ==
Currently, WICB meets annually at ASCB meetings and has a column in the ASCB newsletter. The goals of WICB are to nominate and give awards and communicate through the newsletter.
The WICB columns provided advice for women particularly in research and job seeking. WICB wrote a guide for job hunt strategies and the columns from the ASCB newsletter were compiled into guides available as downloadable pdfs from ASCB. The WICB provides matchmaking services to assist job seekers with help with interviews, CVs, and cover letter.
WICB initiated the Mid-Career Award in 2013 to target mid-career scientists which for women, often reflects a time of tenure considerations as well as increased family responsibilities. Future goals of the committee include expanding inclusivity across all genders and support for underrepresented groups.
== Awards ==
WICB awards the following annually:
WICB Junior Award for Excellence in Research
WICB Mid-Career Award for Excellence in Research
Sandra K. Masur Senior Leadership Award
link to profiles of women on the 50th anniversary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXy43div2Sk
== References ==

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Women in archaeology is an aspect of the history of archaeology and the topic of women in science more generally. In the nineteenth century women were discouraged from pursuing interests in archaeology, however throughout the twentieth century participation and recognition of expertise increased. However women in archaeology face discrimination based on their gender and many face harassment in the workplace.
== History ==
As a professional field of study, archaeology was initially established as an academic discipline in the nineteenth century and typically developed from people engaged in the study of antiquities. Prior to the Victorian era, women in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States were rarely engaged in professional archaeology (though at this time, archaeology was not so much a profession as the practice of wealthy individuals, with workers paid to undertake the digging). Participation by women in the field was discouraged, both by men and societal pressure, as the occupation masculinized the accepted view of women as homemakers and nurturers. Even after they began to enter the field, the reluctance of male colleagues to accept them in fieldwork, led many women to choose roles outside of academia, seeking positions in museums or in cultural preservation associations. In Europe, women often entered the discipline as research partners with their husbands or to learn about the cultures when their spouses were posted to Colonial outposts or missionary fields. From the mid-1850s women's higher education facilities began offering separate courses for women and in the 1870s several European countries opened university curricula to women. Though women were accepted into the study of archaeology, they were rarely considered equals and often were not admitted to prestigious societies, or allowed to complete training in the field. Swedish archaeologist Hanna Rydh was one exception, as was French archaeologist Madeleine Colani, but more typical were the hard-fought battles of women such as Edith Hall, Harriet Boyd Hawes, Marina Picazo, Eugénie Sellers Strong, and Blanche E. Wheeler to undertake excavation projects. More typically, women such as German archaeologist Johanna Mestorf, who worked as a museum curator and academic; writers such as British Egyptologist Amelia Edwards and Persianist Gertrude Bell, and French Persianist Jean Dieulafoy, who traveled and wrote about excavations during their travels; and women like Tessa Wheeler, who assisted her husband by compiling reports and raising money, were the pioneers of women archaeologists.
At the turn of the twentieth century, British women such as Eugénie Sellers Strong, who taught at the Archaeological Institute of America and British School at Rome and Margaret Murray, who lectured at University College London, began to join the ranks of university staff. By the time of World War I, the majority of women working in the archaeology were employed in museums. Noted women archaeological curators or museum directors include Dane Maria Mogensen, Greek Semni Karouzou and Spaniards Concepción Blanco Mínguez and Ursicina Martínez Gallego To carve out their own niches, women typically focused on research close to where they lived or from their native cultures, or undertook studies researching household items typically ignored by men. For example, Marija Gimbutas focused on Eastern European topics even after relocating to the United States; Lanier Simmons, who wanted to study Maya culture, ended up researching closer to home because of family obligations; and Harriet Boyd focused on domestic objects and utensils. Greek Anna Apostolaki, Dane Margrethe Hald, Spaniard Felipa Niño Mas and Swede Agnes Geijer became experts on textiles; Dane Elisabeth Munksgaard focused on clothing, while Norwegian Charlotte Blindheim studied Viking costumes and jewelry. Pottery and art were also topics on which women focused.
Prior to the 1970s, even women like Gertrude Caton-Thompson, Hilda Petrie, and Elizabeth Riefstahl, pioneers in Egyptology who had made distinguished contributions to the field, were omitted from compilations of experts working in the field. If women were mentioned at all, their roles were trivialized. During the New Deal, the Works Progress Administration sponsored excavations at mound sites in Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina, which allowed women of color and working-class women to participate in archaeological work; however, class- and race-based definitions of femininity curtailed broad participation by white women, who tended to focus on participating in amateur organizations.
== Archaeological conservation ==
The formal conservation of archaeological objects in Western museum environments from the 1880s onwards was dominated by male scientists and technicians. However, conservation of objects in the field and in educational settings was predominantly performed by women, often the wives and relatives of male archaeologists. Similarly to female archaeologists, these expert contributions to archaeological practice were omitted from official publications and records of archaeological work undertaken.
The expertise of early female conservators was then applied and refined at the Institute of Archaeology at St John's Lodge, Regents Park, from 1937 to 1959. When the Institute of Archaeology moved to Gordon Square in 1959, a conservation teaching programme was established by Ione Gedye who continued to teach at the institute from 1937 to 1975.
The objects treated at the Lodge formed the basis of the Institute of Archaeology collections, including the Petrie Palestine collection. These collections were instrumental in establishing the Institute of Archaeology as an internationally significant centre of archaeological study.
== Contemporary issues ==
=== History of women in the discipline ===
Critically analyzing the role of women in archaeology from the professionalisation of the discipline in the 19th century to the present day is a crucial task to undertake. Although there are some publications on the subject, it can be said that in general we know little about it, and that the absence of women in the histories of archaeology should lead us to reflect urgently on the way disciplinary chronicles are written.

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=== Glass ceiling ===
Statistics show that women experience a glass ceiling in academic archaeology. Sue Hamilton, the director of the UCL Institute of Archaeology, noted that 6070% of the institute's undergraduate and postgraduate students were women, as were the majority of its postdoctoral researchers. However, the proportion of women amongst permanent academic staff has never been more than 31%. Women are progressively further under-represented in each academic rank at the institute: 38% of lecturers are female, 41% of senior lecturers, 17% of readers, and just 11% of professors. A 2016 study found a similar pattern in Australian universities. Whilst 41% of academic archaeologists were women, there was an imbalance in female representation in research fellowships (67%) compared to higher-ranked lecturing posts (31%). This study identified a "two-tiered" glass ceiling: women were less likely to obtain permanent tenure-track positions, and those that did also found it more difficult to advance to senior ranks. In 1994, around 15% of the archaeologists working in the top 30 academic institutions for the field were women.
On the other hand, it was within academic archaeology that women first broke the glass ceiling at a number of British universities. Dorothy Garrod was the first woman to hold a chair (in any subject) at either the University of Cambridge or the University of Oxford, having been appointed Disney Professor of Archaeology at Cambridge in 1939. Kathleen Kenyon was acting director of the Institute of Archaeology, University of London, during the Second World War. Rosemary Cramp was the first woman to hold a chair at the University of Durham, having been appointed Professor of Archaeology in 1971.
=== Sexual harassment and assault ===
In 2014, the Survey Academic Field Experiences (SAFE) surveyed nearly 700 scientists on their experiences of sexual harassment and sexual assault during fieldwork. The survey was aimed at field researchers across a range of disciplines (e.g. anthropologists, biologists), but archaeologists constituted the largest group of respondents. The survey confirmed that sexual harassment and assault were "systemic" problems at field sites, with 64% of respondents reporting that they had personally experienced harassment and 20% that they had personally experienced sexual assault. Women, who made up the majority of the respondents (77.5%), were significantly more likely to have experienced both and were also more likely to report that such experiences were occurred "regularly" or "frequently". The targets were almost always students or early career researchers, and the perpetrators were most likely to be more senior members of the research team, although harassment and assault from peers and members of local communities were also relatively common. The experiences reported ranged from "inadvertent alienating behavior" to unwanted sexual advances, sexual assault and rape. Few respondents found that there were adequate codes of conduct or reporting procedures in place. The authors of the SAFE survey emphasised the significant negative impacts that such experiences of have on victims' job satisfaction, performance, career progression, and physical and mental health.
== Notable women archaeologists ==
Linda Braidwood (19092003), United States, Near Eastern Archaeology
Gertrude Caton-Thompson (18881985), United Kingdom, Egyptologist
Gemma Sena Chiesa (19292024), Italy, Ancient Rome
Grace Crowfoot (18791957), United Kingdom, archaeological textiles
Niède Guidon (Born 1933), Brazil, Pre-Historic Archeology of South American civilizations
Frederica de Laguna (19062004), United States, Native Alaskan cultures
Caroline Dormon (18881971), United States, indigenous peoples of Louisiana
Edith Hall Dohan (18771943), United States, Etruscan and Mediterranean civilizations
Cecily Margaret Guido (1912-1994), United Kingdom, prehistoric settlements
Harriet Boyd Hawes (18711945), United States, Minoan and Mediterranean cultures
Dorothy Cross Jensen (19061972), United States, Iraq and indigenous peoples of New Jersey
Semni Karouzou (18971994), Greece, Classical Archaeology
Mary Butler Lewis (19031970), United States, Hudson Valley
Margaret Murray (18631963), India/United Kingdom, Egyptologist
Hilda Petrie (18711957), Ireland, Egyptologist
Dorothy Popenoe (18991932), United Kingdom, Honduran Maya and Pre-Columbian era
Tatiana Proskouriakoff (19091985), Russia/United States, Guatemalan and Mexican Maya
Elizabeth Riefstahl (18891986), United States, Egyptologist
Doris Stone (19091994), United States, Costa Rican and Honduran prehistory
Marian E. White (1921—1975), United States, Erie people, Neutral Nation, Wenrohronon
Sara Yorke Stevenson (18471921), United States, Egyptology and Near East
Zheng Zhenxiang (19292024), China, Shang dynasty
Marija Gimbutas (19211994), Lithuania/United States, Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of Old Europe and Kurgan hypothesis
== Gallery ==
== See also ==
Women in science
Feminist archaeology
Gender archaeology
== References ==
=== Citations ===
=== Bibliography ===
== External links ==
TrowelBlazers