Women In Print

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  • 1.  Women In Space

    Posted 10-28-2019 19:01
    With hopes to inspire every woman in the community.

    I've always been incredibly awestruck by NASA and the space program. When back in 1969, during the historic launch of Apollo 11, which put the first men on the moon, rows of men in shirts and ties lined the consoles inside Kennedy Space Center. But one woman stood out, 28-year-old JoAnn Morgan. Morgan, who worked as an instrumentation controller for the mission, was the only woman allowed inside the firing room where NASA employees were locked during Apollo 11's historic liftoff on July 16, 1969. She endured obscene phone calls and had to use men's bathrooms as one of NASA's first female engineers. She inspired a generation of women, her path was not an easy one.

    Last week Friday, while many of us were preparing for the final day of PRINTING United, NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir made history with the world’s first-ever all-female spacewalk.  While many women have already exited the ISS to spacewalk along with a male counterpart, this was the first time female astronauts did it as a team of women. NASA ran a  live stream of the spacewalk on YouTube.

    Meanwhile, another woman, Stephanie Wilson, the NASA spacewalk coordinator at the Mission Control Center, assisted them from some 220 miles below. It’s a reminder of what’s possible when women collaborate with one another, and what it might look like to live in a world where such situations are so common as to be unremarkable.

    But we’re not there yet. For now, women devoted to ushering true equality into existence may feel a bit like astronauts themselves: Excited to be outside the realm of the familiar, sometimes working together in the dark, sometimes in the sunlight.

    The first all-woman spacewalk is a milestone worth noting and celebrating as NASA looks forward to putting the first woman on the Moon by 2024 with NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration program.

    Reflecting back to the WIP breakfast, I cannot help but make the comparison. Amazing ladies working together, collaborating and pushing the needle forward, inspiring everyone. Speak with a BIGGER voice, make things BETTER by being BOLDER. One small step for women, one giant leap for womenkind.


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    Bob Monte
    Strategic Account Manager
    EFI
    Austin TX
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