18th JUNE 1983

On this day in 1983, in America, the space shuttle 'Challenger' was launched in to space on its second mission. Aboard the shuttle was Dr. Sally Ride, who as a mission specialist became the first American woman to travel into space.

Sally Ride, who was at the time also the youngest American to go into space, joined NASA in 1978, answering an ad in the paper in which NASA was asking for participants for the space program. Before joining NASA ride attended Stanford University, graduating with a bachelor's degree in English and Physics, as well as earning her master's degree and Ph.D. in physics, doing research in astrophysics and free electron laser physics.

Ride remained a member of NASA up until 1987 when she left to work at the Standford University Centre for International Security and Arms Control. In 1989 she became a professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego and Director of the California Space Institute. Ride has been inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame and has two elementary schools named after her in America; Sally K. Ride Elementary School in The Woodlands, Texas and Sally K. Ride Elementary School in Germantown, Maryland.

See that, a woman made it into space! And, has two schools named after her! That's really cool. I would't say that I'm an extreme feminist in the kind of root fashion of the word. That is to say I don't think feminists need to burn their bras and not shave their legs ever, but I do think that women deserve to be treated as equals and seen as such, not only by males, but by each other.

I mean, it's all well and good to say that men need to treat women with respect, and I think that nowadays we are sort of in that stage, where we do have some really good levels of gender equality, but I still believe we have a long way to go before it ever fully be comes acceptable for a man and a woman to be seen as 'the same'.

A lot of this probably boils down to the ability of women to view each other as being equals in terms of rights too. I know that I am guilty of seeing other women, just by how they dress or how they act, as being in some sense inferior to me. I know that this probably makes me a horrible person. And I'm not just doing it to women. I judge males extensively as well. We all do.

So maybe that it what lies at the base of all our problems when it comes to equality: our ability and almost need to judge each other.

If that is the case, well, we're in a bit of a pickle now aren't we?


Image available: http://thewomensfoundation.org/2011/women’s-history-month-qa-day-march-11-2011/