Astronauts got into outer space thanks to this lady:
Photography Credit: Dave Green
Before taking on the high banks of Daytona in IMSA, Iron Dames took to the stage. Why? To help spread a message: Challenge your perceptions and empower future generations.
But that's not all.
Joining the Iron Dames were various female NASA trailblazers in correlation with the Iron Dames and Artemis project.
“When we came on the track in 2019, people were not really sure what to expect,” Michelle Gatting of Iron Dames shares. “There have been plenty of female lineups, but they were there for a year or so and then you never really saw them again. But the Iron Dames project is really here to stay. We have been fighting our way through and fighting on track. I feel that we belong here, we are well respected and that we deserve our place here like anyone else.”
As with motorsports, women’s involvement in aerospace has been steadily growing over the years.
“If you were to look across the firing room years ago, you would see one woman out of about 400 engineers that had a technical role,” Artemis Launch Director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson shares. “I look today and its somewhere around 25% to 30% women in the room. Things have certainly changed over the last 50+ years.”
But of course, these progressions didn’t just happen overnight.
“We don’t create a world champion in a month or one year,” Sarah Bovy of Iron Dames shares. “Those drivers you see on TV have years of hard work and dedication. Of course you need some talent, but you also need the rest.”
Another factor within motorsports to consider is money. “To take the classic path to driving, whether it be karting, single seaters or formula, is extremely difficult and costs quite a lot,” Bovy explains. “At the moment there is no real solution to help those kids.”
One goal for the Iron Dames is to offer that support to young girls who are looking to enter the sport by creating those opportunities and giving them the tools to succeed.
But how does everyone, including these young girls, start? With a goal.
“You set yourself a goal, you figure out your path to get to your goal and then you chip away at it little –by little,” former NASA astronaut Susan Kilrain shares. “I did it through education, flying and then continuing to reach through multiple little goals.”
However, some of the biggest challenges these women faced weren’t from driving or flying a rocket. Instead, it was from the media and their own personal expectations.
“One thing that is great about NASA was that I never felt singled out in any way,” Susan explains. “Only the media brought up the fact I was a woman. The spaceship doesn’t know the gender of the pilot.”
“And it's the same feeling for us,” Gatting emphasizes. “When you get in a race car, have a helmet on and when you’re driving the car, people don’t know the difference. We are not men or women. We are just race drivers.”
The final lesson these women left for the audience? Don’t limit yourself. Everyone, regardless of gender, has the ability to reach the stars or the checkered flag.
“Things will never be just one or the other,” Blackwell shares. “You might have to make some choices, but things aren’t always mutually exclusive. Just don’t put yourself down for it.”
Astronauts got into outer space thanks to this lady:
Probably the first article where you have to write "yes, that NASA, not the other one"
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