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Originally Posted by NoOne
itry to watach the potential women astronauts form the 60's deal with condescending reporters and the ridiculous quesitons they asked as if gender was relevant to being an astronaut in any way shape or form. just an article showing the existed.. think a documentary is being released sometime soon or is out etc. wher you can hear some of the nonsense they had to put up with.. and keep a smile on their face, ffs.
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Chauvinism was more commonplace in that era. so it ought not be that surprising. But things have changed a lot since then.
In regards to U.S. female astronauts specifically, there weren't any until much later.
Some might like to claim that was due to chauvinism, but it had much more to do with the nature of the job at that time. The first astronaut groups in the U.S. were drawn from military test pilots. Why? Because test pilots were used to operating in new and potentially dangerous craft, reacting immediately to unexpected circumstances. Their military background (typically involving flying in combat) meant there were accustomed to high-stress situations and the possibility of death. And the early space program was certainly a highly risky endeavour. There were several close calls that could have ended in death but which fortunately didn't. As it was, three U.S. astronauts were killed during training prior to their missions, and there was also the Apollo I fire.
As to the Russians, from what I understand of Tereshkova's flight, her performance had some issues. Many at the time regarded her mission as primarily a propaganda one.