How can we enable gender mainstreaming in the space sector

At the end of 2024, I attended the fifth Space4Women event organised by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the Kenyan Space Agency. The theme: integrating women in space activities and solutions.
 
During the event, I was invited to sit on a panel titled ‘Championing the implementation of the gender mainstreaming toolkit: Advancing the gender-sensitive policy uptake.’ As the only private sector representative on the panel, my role was to represent industry and present how the private sector could/is benefitting from the toolkit created by UNOOSA – which gives organisations tangible tools to improve gender equity.
 
The UK is continuing to take positive steps forwards in this area. A recent study found that 74% of UK organisations have a DE&I programme in place, highlighting the general recognition that diversity is an important and valuable investment. However, while industry continues to take positive steps forwards, there’s still a lot more that can be done to drive meaningful change.

Examples of gender disparity remain

Specifically, I believe there’s one key area in which there’s definite room for improvement: greater inclusion of women in the design phase and throughout space project and programme lifecycles – from feasibility and design through to build, testing and deployment.
 
As the toolkit says, “Proactively considering gender differences during early issue identification and research phases, as well as project team design, would ensure that gender-specific needs and requirements are planned from the outset.”
 
Failure to do results in key mission aspects (often fairly obvious ones) being overlooked. We have already seen the impact of this on human spaceflight missions. In 2019, NASA was forced to cancel its planned first all-female spacewalk due to a lack of medium-sized spacesuits available on the International Space Station. This led to the development of space suits for women for the Artemis mission to the moon, but it took something going wrong for the issue to be addressed.
 
Of course, this kind of gender inconsistency isn’t unique to space. Consider the world of car safety. For more than 50 years, crash test dummies have been used to test the effectiveness of seatbelts and car safety features. However, these dummies have, until very recently, almost exclusively been based on the average male build and weight. This is a bias that can directly affect the safety and well-being of female drivers.
 
Like NASA on its Artemis mission, there’s a clear need to ensure diverse voices and perspectives are heard at all stages of a mission. By embracing such an approach and mindset, we can understand not only gender needs throughout the development of a mission, but also the impact of the mission on both women and men. For example, Earth Observation satellites providing data to enable rescues during natural disasters, or internet connectivity to remote areas which could increase the uptake of STEM education for young girls and women.

Tackling the equity issue

As a collective, we as a space ecosystem must dedicate time and resources to listen to voices that currently go unheard and create opportunities for everyone – at all levels within the industry and beyond female minorities.
 
Why is this important? Having more women in decision-making roles, for example, can help address the needs of the most vulnerable people around the world. Diverse perspectives enable us to tackle diverse problems – as well as driving improvements in business performance.
 
Of course, achieving true equity and diversity is easier said than done, but UNOOSA’s toolkit highlights four ‘measures’ for organisations to focus on and judge themselves against:

• Committing at all levels to advance gender equality: active effort and participation is required from everyone within the organisation. Consider forming an advisory committee or hiring an executive-level gender mainstreaming leader.
• Promoting equal opportunities within the organisation: start by conducting a workforce analysis to understand the current composition of your workforce and identify where representational gaps exist. Collecting employee insights, such as through staff surveys, can also help you understand how employees feel and where to target resources.
• Creating dedicated programming to empower all women and girls: actions could include partnering with local and/or regional organisations that support women in STEM or providing mentorship opportunities to young girls.
• Measuring and reporting on gender equality outcomes: consider establishing data collection plans, monitoring progress towards gender equality outcomes and regularly reporting on this progress to drive transparency.

 
Ultimately, the challenges of mainstreaming gender into the space domain are wide-ranging. Meaningful change will take time – but making the effort is crucial given how space innovation can impact everyone. Accounting for diversity in experiences, behaviours and priorities is therefore critical to developing impactful solutions.
 
By embracing new approaches and sharing insights into what does and doesn’t work, we as a community can continue to drive diversity across the space industry and ensure a more inclusive future for the next-generation of talent.