STEM-Professional Women's Exclusion in the Canadian Space Industry
Anchor Points and Intersectionality at the Margins of Space
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- Description
- Contents
- Reviews
- About
Chapter 1. The View from Earth Chapter 2. Forms of Context Chapter 3. Forms of Knowledge Chapter 4. Forms of Experiences Chapter 5. Research Methodology Chapter 6. STEM Professional Women’s Range of Anchor Points Chapter 7. Canadian Space Industry’s Forms of Context and STEM-Professional Women’s Dominant Ideas and Practices Chapter 8. Relationship between STEM-Professional Women’s Anchor Points and Forms of Context, and Forms of Experiences Chapter 9. Revealing the ‘How’ of an Exclusionary Order, and Social Justice Initiatives Final Word: My Journey
‘You probably haven’t read many books about women scientists working in the space industry, perhaps because there are not many (in both senses). This book, STEM-Professional Women’s Exclusion in the Canadian Space Industry, from a senior space scientist, formerly the only female mission manager in the Canadian Space Agency, examines in depth and in detail the identities, experiences, careers and career anchors, discourses and contexts of women, and some men, in the sector. By way of expert feminist intersectional poststructuralist analysis, it brings many insights, not just for STEM-professions and professionals, but the wider worlds of men’s organizational domination and men’s protected and excluding bastions.’
‘Women's exclusion has become visible in this highly novel book on the Canadian space industry. STEM-professional women's experiences, their agency and the ways in which they move beyond the positions assigned to them institutionally and professionally are analysed with care through theoretically rigorous debates surrounding identity, power and difference. As readers, we learn about remarkable women in a unique context, and thus teaches us about the ways in which history shapes the present lived experiences of women working in male dominated environments. Excitedly, this book enables us to think what future is possible for women as they continue to break through what would have historically been seen as impossible barriers. A must read.’
‘This book is a beautifully written synthesis of intersectionality and critical sensemaking in one of the most exciting contexts of our time, space. Stefanie Ruel’s unique voice and her insightful appropriation of a rich set of ideas to study the core question of her study, ‘how there were so few STEM-professional women managers in the Canadian space industry’, has all the ingredients of a classic in the empirical study of identity and intersectionality. Her research marks a thorough understanding of the complex relationships between context, knowledge and experience that is required to perform a detailed analysis of discourses and power-relations in such a way to reveal the exclusionary order prevailing in the space industry. Through the brilliant fusion of diverse theoretical and empirical ingredients, she has provided us a thought-provoking book that is a true adventure for the reader.’
‘Dr Stefanie Ruel is the only woman to fulfil the role of Life Sciences Mission Manager in the billion-dollar Canadian space industry, a sector which is dominated by White cismen. In this beautifully written and highly engaging book, Dr Ruel explores micro-level, everyday interactions in the industry to surface the discourses which make for the ongoing exclusion of women from scientific, technical, engineering and mathematical management positions. Her data is drawn from detailed interviews with men and women in the space industry and analysis of publicly available documents. The book provides a compelling lens on an industry which is under-researched in organization studies and a much-needed corrective to research which focuses only on ‘who’ and ‘how many’ questions about gendered, raced and classed exclusion and discrimination. It also makes a powerful case around the resistances that female STEM professionals can mount in the space industry as well as how their male colleagues can support them in enacting social change. Put simply, it is a must read for anyone interested in difference, identity, discrimination and exclusion, in organizations and elsewhere.’
In order to showcase the mechanism by which STEM-professional women are excluded from management and executive positions in the Canadian Space Agency and the Canadian space industry, Ruel examines the discourses and power relations surrounding these women's identities, and draws and reworks the concept of anchor points to investigate their relationship to structural, discursive, and socio-psychological processes. Among her topics are the view from Earth, forms of experience, STEM-professional women's range of anchor points, the Canadian space industry's forms of context and STEM-professional women's dominant ideas and practices, and revealing the "how" of an exclusionary order and social justice initiatives.