Race, Gender, and Space Exploration: A Chapter in the Social History of the Space Age
2007 ◽
Vol 41
(2)
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pp. 405-434
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Keyword(s):
The Us
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An era of space explorations and an era of expanded civil rights for racial minorities and women began simultaneously in the United States. But such important social changes are very rarely discussed in relation to each other. Four recent books on how the US astronaut program finally opened to women and minorities in 1978 address a key part of this connection, without discussing the struggles that compelled the ending of traditional race and gender exclusions. This essay examines the organizational and political dynamics of how civil rights in employment came to the US civilian space program in the decades after 1970.