The Trailblazing Women of NASA

It was on August 26th, 1920 that the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution was certified, giving some American women full voting rights. August 26th is now Women’s Equality Day. Designated in 1973, the date celebrates the Women’s Suffrage Movement and underscores the continuing work for equality for women and girls.

NASA has marked this persistent effort with a video introduction to eleven space pioneers, including physicist Pearl Young, engineer Kitty O’Brien Joyner, mathematician Dorothy Vaughan, mathematician Katherine Johnson, Chief of Astronomy and “Mother of Hubble” Nancy Grace Roman, and launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson.

Plus: Firsts by astronauts Sally Ride, Kathryn Sullivan, Dr. Mae Jemison, Eileen M. Collins, and pictured below, Peggy Whitson.

Learn more at women.nasa.gov.

Related reading: African American Women and the Nineteenth Amendment.

Then watch these related videos: Celebrating Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, Dr. Mae Jemison, NASA Astronaut: I Wanted To Go Into Space, The Courage To Invent: A NASA Roboticist Tells Her Story, and The NASA-JPL engineers behind Mars InSight & MarCO.

Bonus: More videos about female astronauts and a few hundred videos about women in STEM jobs.