Remembering the bad old past of the 1950's that some want as our future

I found an article today about the attempt to create a core of woman astronauts in the early 1960's. The story of the many challenges they faced and overcame is inspiring. These women after overcoming great hurtles were in the end denied the chance to be astronauts in space. Even more interesting to me were the parts of the article with the descriptions of the economic, legal and social barriers all women faced just to live in America. We must here and remember those inequities that women faced so that we do never forget.

Up until the women's liberation movement the only way most women could have any hope of economic stability was to marry the right man. Let's make sure that our friends in the ANTI community who have such fondness for the good old days never are allowed to return us those bad old days of straight jacketing women into the job of housewife, nurse and school teacher.

Here are some quotes from the article:

A woman in space
2 men of the 1950s showed that women have 'The Right Stuff' to be astronauts


BETHESDA, Md. (October 6, 2009) — In the early years of the "space race" (1957-1975) two men sought to test a scientifically simple yet culturally complicated theory: that women might be innately better suited for space travel than men. In 1960 the thought of a woman in space was a radical one, and justifiably so. On the ground 75% of American women did not work outside the home and females were banned from military flight service altogether. In marriage, wives were required to have their husband's permission to take out a bank loan, buy property, or purchase large household goods such as a refrigerator. Despite the social odds, a Harvard-educated surgeon and a U.S. Air Force General sought to determine if, from a purely practical perspective, women were suitable for space flight.

The latest look at the intersection of physiology, spaceflight and politics is captured in a new article entitled "A Forgotten Moment in Physiology: The Lovelace Woman in Space Program (1960-1962)," written by Kathy Ryan, Jack Loeppky and Donald Kilgore*.

Their article appears in the September edition of Advances in Physiology (http://advan.physiology.org/cgi/reprint/33/3/157)
a publication of the American Physiological Society (APS; www.the-aps.org/press)
The APS has been an integral part of the scientific discovery process since it was founded in 1887.

My older sister graduated with a perfect straight A average from high school here in San Diego County except for PE classes where she was given automatic Bs as there were no after school girls sports programs and the A grades in PE were pretty much reserved for letterman--boys who did well in varsity sports.My sister was denied the title of valedictorian at graduation as she was a girl and there was a boy who also had a straight A average including in PE.

Denying girls awards and pay that they had earned with equal or greater work than their male colleagues was routine at the time and un-remarked on. It was just the way things were done. When folks wax poetic about the wonderful time when America was America back in the 50's remember my sister, remember the woman astronauts who were denied a chance to go into space, remember the woman denied loans and purchase of large items like washing machines without their husband's approval. That happened HERE in America.

Luckily for my sister the National Merit Scholarships overlooked gender. They were based solely on the national test scores and she was able to obtain one of their scholarships.