How Do Astronauts Deal with Periods ...in Space?
How Do Astronauts Deal with Periods ...in Space?
The intrigue and curiosity about space has been shared by women and men alike. But for decades, most women were shut out of the space circle due to so-called “legitimate” concerns about their emotional impairment during their menstruation in space.
Even though many men had been able to transverse the stars, women were still socially prohibited to explore the unknown beauty of space, because of the false notion that somehow women were emotionally impaired by having their period in space, and that they were inferior to their male astronaut counterparts, due to their physiological make up.
Even when women had overcome the ridiculous constraints of “science” and earned a spot in the shuttles, they still faced equally bizarre misconceptions. In 1983, when Sally Ride became the first US woman in space, she had to endure questions from engineers about the number of tampons she would need for a week in space. One hundred they estimated. These engineers who could calculate mind-boggling equations that send and retrieve humans into outer space thought a woman needed 100 tampons during a single cycle, assuming it was a seven-day cycle.
Female Astronauts Finally Start to Break Glass Ceilings At NASA
The willful prejudice and false notion of female astronauts being impaired by their periods in space proved to fail over the years. Scientist and astronauts now know that periods in space are the same as periods on earth, nothing changes whether they use tampons, pads, or period panties it does not put female astronauts lives’ in danger.
The stories of remarkable women like those represented in the movie “Hidden Figures” directed by Theodore Melfi, and astronauts like Ride constantly prove to the world that women have a constructive and valuable part to play in the exploration of space and aeronautics.
Per the NASA website “Sally Ride became the first American woman to fly in space. She was an astronaut on a space shuttle mission. Her job was to work the robotic arm. She used the arm to help put satellites into space. She flew on the space shuttle again in 1984”.
Women like Ride, Dorothy Vaughn, Mary Jackson and Katherine Johnson overcame the false perceptions of women being incapable of immense success in the space and aeronautics field. They teach us to always reach for the stars and #DoAnything!
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