Who are . . .
Susan Kassin
Caitlin Casey
Rachel Somerville
Alice Shapely
Erica Nelson
Pratika Dayal
Priyamvada Natarajan ?
These seven women are astrophysicists who are cited in a recent article in Quanta magazine that discusses the “beautiful confusion of the first billion years” of the universe.* en
What struck me as I read the article was how the presence of these highly-regarded women scientists upset my pre-conceived notion that present-day astrophysics was a male-dominated province. Enlightened as I like to think I am, I soon saw that our culture had prejudiced my ideas of what gender roles were in science. I soon looked up on the ’net other women who—over the centuries—contributed to our knowledge of astronomy and astrophysics.** But, of course, those pioneers were a drop in the bucket compared to the number of males in those fields.
How many women had to take lesser roles in the search for the secrets of the heavens? And how many didn’t even get a sniff of a chance to use their intelligence at all?
How much has humankind lost over the millennia by not allowing women the opportunities that have been available to the male sex?
*
Enter J. D. Vance.
He whose great desire is to see women barefoot and pregnant:
“Our people aren’t having enough children to replace themselves. That should bother us . . . . We want more babies because children are good.”***
Vance may not be a card-carrying pronatalist, but he certainly seems like a fellow traveler. According to The New Yorker,
Pronatalism typically combines concerns about falling birth rates with anti-immigration and anti-feminist ideas. It champions not just having children but having many—large families for the sake of large families, reproduction for reproduction’s sake. Except that, in this world view, not all reproduction is equal. Pronatalism favors native-born baby makers.****
*
When women are forced to spend so much of their lives in the maternity ward or at home changing diapers, they have little opportunity to spend time in the laboratory or the observatory.
Consider this: every time a woman gets pregnant a man has gotten laid. How nice for the men to have such women around to satisfy their sexual itch.
The universe can wait.
**https://www.space.com/trailblazing-women-in-astronomy-astrophysics
****https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/j-d-vance-and-the-rights-call-to-have-more-babies
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