#WomensHistoryMonth2024, Aerospace Edition is a wrap! During March, 2024 I highlighted 31 amazing women in all areas of aerospace, spanning engineering, astronauts, artists, teachers, heliophysicists, and much more. This post will summarize how it came together, some stats, and how you can do this too!
First, I hope you learned something surprising and that you heard stories you’ll want to repeat. I know that in researching these amazing women, I learned lessons I will be repeating for the rest of my life. Jenn Gustetic (30) said, “I challenge you to not only to take space, but to make space.” This series is all about making space for stories that need to be told, to share the history of aerospace, but also to show you the amazing people around us that are making history today.
I wish I could say this was well-planned, but I didn’t realize March is Women’s History Month until it was pointed out to me. In February I did a similar series – Black History Month, Aerospace Edition – and learned so much that I wanted to do the same for Women’s History Month. My friends advised me to give others a voice and to highlight more people I know, explaining how I we met. I was lucky that my friends Lestarya Molloy and Corey Frazier readily agreed, and penned days 18 and 28, respectively. I was even luckier that six amazing women (all in the final week of the series) agreed to be interviewed for this series, and that I got to share their stories with you. During the series, I asked others who they’d like to learn about and filled the list with suggestions.
As with my previous series, I asked ChatGPT and CoPilot to suggest ten astronauts, scientists, and artists with a deep connection to space, emphasizing those who’d achieved firsts and that were not as famous. I surfed Wikipedia, NASA, and the Smithsonian websites for hours and compiled a list I thought was super compelling – one for each day of the month and 35 in reserve.
A common theme emerged from this series. Each story of bravery, of discovery, of invention, of artistic brilliance, was followed by actions and advice on the responsibility of bringing others along, whether peers, or the next generation. Every. Single. One. And when they had to fight the good fight, they made sure those who came after didn’t have to fight the same fight.
For my numbers people, the stats behind Women’s History Month 2024, Aerospace Edition.
100 years of achievement
19 states / 7 countries
20 previously known / 7 in my network
11 different fields/disciplines
3 generations31 women
And now, the full list:
Do you have someone in your life who loves aerospace, who might not even be interested in astronaut or engineer as a career, but who dreams of teaching in space or becoming the first pilot to break mach 10 or the first to discover technosignature around another star? Each of the women on this list has brought someone along with them. I’d encourage you to do the same. Share these stories with someone who needs to hear them. After all….
“Helping one person might not change the whole world,
Unknown
but it could change the world for one person.”
You can do it too. Here’s how!
- Choose a month that matters to you. Black History (February), Women (March), AAPI (May), Hispanic Heritage (September-October), Native American Heritage (November). More here: https://edib.harvard.edu/heritage-months
- Select a theme. Aerospace is personally important to me and where I serve. Choose a theme important to you, where stories must be told.
- Create a list of names. Start with ChatGPT (or other Generative AI), but seek others from your own network and research. Organize them in a chart like this:
- Do the Research. Find other bios, the person’s website, TED Talks, Youtube videos, podcasts, and more. Learn what makes them remarkable and the causes / messages important to them. Identify the lesson we can learn.
- Create a short bio template that makes it easy for you to create momentum. Mine outlined the person’s youth, education, accomplishments, rounded out with a lesson I chose (and not always the obvious ones).
- Write 5 in advance so you won’t be under pressure. It’s more powerful to use your own voice here, so avoid Generative AI unless you’re really stuck.
- Bring others along to do the research and writing, and promoting.
Please do share freely in your networks and get in touch if you do this exercise yourself!
Thank you Ragni Jayanthy, Jen Snow, Abha Havaldar, Corey Frazier, Lestarya Tuadi Molloy for your encouragement and support!
No Comments