Rocketry: An Unexpected Sign of Progress

[beamjockey]

I was reading "New Launch Hoops," an article by Amy Butler in Aviation Week's 17 October 2011 issue. I quote:

The three U.S. agencies responsible for purchasing launches of government payloads into space are agreeing on long-awaited criteria that for the first time pave the way for new rocket companies to penetrate a national security launch sector now dominated by the United Launch Alliance, a Lockheed Martin and Boeing joint venture.

The article went on to describe a "coordinated strategy" signed by three agencies* to streamline the entry of new competitors into the the market for government launches.

In the article, the following people were quoted:

Under Secretary of the Air Force
Principal Deputy Director of the National Reconnaissance Office
Deputy Administrator of NASA
President of SpaceX

Suddenly I realized that all of them are women.

The U.S. has jumped through a few hoops itself, if we have arrived at a point where women simultaneously occupy three such government positions; the majority of their predecessors must surely have been male.

Or rather than "arrived at," I should say, "if we are passing through a point," for there is more progress yet to be made. But it is a small reason to be proud of my country.





*Here's a PDF of "Coordinated Strategy among the United States Air Force, the National Reconnaissance Office, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for New Entrant Launch Vehicle Certification."

Comments

[derekl1963.livejournal.com]

So long as the sex of the person occupying the office is a matter to be pointed out - there's no reason at all to be proud. In fact, it's evidence of lack of progress.

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

I disagree. I don't think self-awareness is evidence of lack of progress. We do still have a Looong way to go, though, if equal opportunity across genders is what we're aiming for. And there's definite backsliding right now in both youth and conservative culture.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

In a world where people are constantly counting the number of females in the tables-of-contents of anthologies, I thought it might be a cheerful thing to point this out. I wish I could have relieved your grumpiness, but apparently that was not meant to be.

[derekl1963.livejournal.com]

I don't see that counting women in offices is any different than counting them in tables of contents.

I'm not grumpy, I just don't believe that judging whether each jar of beans contains the 'right' number of the 'right' qualities (sex, color, whatever) is a positive step towards judging people as individuals. I believe that is has the opposite effect, it enhances the focus on the ticky box rather than on the individual.

[samildanach.livejournal.com]

So by the same token, if the preponderance of senior scientists and officers in aerospace were male, that would also be insignificant?

[kgbooklog.livejournal.com]

Progress is the journey, not the destination.

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

Nice! I wonder what percentage of licensed pilots are female these days...

[wcg.livejournal.com]

3.6%, according to the ninety-nines (organization of women pilots).

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

Oh cool, I thought the ninety-nines were history. Nice to know they're still going.

That's an even lower percentage than I expected, though. *sigh* I guess at this point few people have seen, much less met, a female pilot outside of the movies etc. Not like in the barnstorming and racing days...

[bigbumble.livejournal.com]

My niece is a female pilot. She has even had the chance to fly a P-51.

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

Very cool. Do you happen to know how she got started doing it?

[bigbumble.livejournal.com]

See graduated from Purdue University with a degree in chemical engineering.(Apparently they have a strong women-in-engineering program there.) She was able to get her pilot's license by taking it as class work in Purdue's aerospace engineering program.

Now she is working on a PhD in chemical engineering at Clemson University.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Wow! That's excellent. Must have been a blast. (And she must be quite good, for somebody to be willing to let her fly a valuable old warbird that's very high-performance).

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

I know at least two pilots in SF fandom who have been members of the Ninety-Nines, tlunquist and Jane Haldeman WINOLJ. I don't know whether either one is active in flying at the moment.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's progress, though there's still a lot to be done.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Grumpiness improved. james_nicoll sent me here.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

I do think the end-point should be not paying much attention to people's sex, outside of selecting potential sex partners (I'm not willing to claim the goal is to make it irrelevant even there).

However, not paying attention when there is widespread belief that there is discrimination doesn't seem like the right outcome.

Even numbers don't prove lack of discrimination, and uneven numbers don't prove discrimination. The question of what would convince a strong majority of interested people that discrimination (in some particular area) was over is hard, both inherently, and because people try to game it. I don't know how to do it.

(I find the current uneven numbers in various anthologies, magazines, book lines, and awards rather suggestive of discrimination -- but it doesn't tell me where, and it's vitally important to crafting an effective response to know where. Especially, if it's in the readers, I think a whole different approach is needed than if it's in the editors. And these things loop on themselves -- if editors believe the readers prefer works by men, there's pressure to give the readers what they want, and one can't always remain employed, or remain in business, if you're putting too much effort into fighting with your customers over their preferences.)

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

I think there are probably a lot of things in effect on this one, and one of them that comes to mind because I know it's affecting me right not is risk-aversion. Now that I have an infant who is dependent on me, I'm not going to ride a motorcycle, though I'd like to, and I'm not going to take flying lessons, though I'd like to do that too.

But even before that, I think I've been more affected than I realized by the societal message toward girls that we should be careful, be in control and not do dangerous things. Learning to fly is no doubt less dangerous than learning to drive a car, but it also has a sense about it of not being a sensible, practical thing to do. Just as fewer women play golf than men, fewer women fly. If that comparison makes any sense... (it does to me).

The discrimination comes into play, of course, in the fact that flying is a perfectly practical skill, and good pilots are in demand in the commercial sector, but historically women have a harder time getting hired to be pilots. And, of course, we aren't allowed to be combat pilots, at least in the US. So even if you do learn to fly, your chances of getting to fly a really fast, high-performance plane are really low if you're female. At least that's my perception.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Committing to making your living writing is certainly a risk, yes. On the other hand, it can be a part-time job, and if your mind works that way can be done around interruptions. It also takes a long time for the first payoff.

I don't know the stats for student pilots off-hand, but you're probably right; student car drivers are terribly dangerous, after all.

The golf vs. flying isn't obvious to me; is it just about greater willingness of men to commit major resources to recreation, or something else?

I happen to have seen numbers yesterday saying that currently in the US 3.6% of the pilots are women. I think even less in professional employed pilots. I'm pretty sure you're right about the really GOOD toys (I remember one fairly famous exception, and it was very limited -- they did use some women during WWII to ferry planes around the US, so those women got to fly all the latest and greatest toys some).

[jamiam.livejournal.com]

We all saw this, right?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6955149/ns/technology_and_science-space/

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

And this?

http://io9.com/5867401/there-really-is-no-difference-between-men-and-womens-math-abilities