Post by Admin on Jan 12, 2021 9:46:09 GMT -5
The three young women behind China's Chang'e 5 lunar mission
www.reddit.com/r/Sino/comments/kce3oj/the_three_young_women_behind_chinas_change_5/
www.inkstonenews.com/society/three-young-women-behind-chinas-change-5-lunar-mission/article/3112875
by
Qin Chen
Chinese state media celebrated three women working in the Chang’e 5 lunar exploration mission. The coverage is welcomed by many Chinese women in the science field, as they try to break through the glass ceiling in a country where patriarchy runs deep.
Three days after China successfully launched the Chang’e 5 spacecraft to the moon, three women who were instrumental in its landing have been catapulted into the limelight.
The Chinese state broadcaster praised the trio’s efforts, a cultural moment similar to the 2016 American film Hidden Figures. The film celebrated three trailblazing African American women mathematicians and engineers working for The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the 1960s.
In this Chinese real-life version of Hidden Figures, one of the women, Zhou Chengyu, a 24-year-old commander of the rocket connector system in the moon exploration program, quickly became a trending topic on China’s Twitter-like Weibo.
“People were all curious about Zhou because she was such a young woman,” said Wan Chaoran, a doctorate candidate in chemical engineering at the China University of Mining and Technology, adding it was unusual for someone like Zhou to hold an important position in China’s most high-profile space exploration program.
“The report also showed an absence of acknowledging women in China’s previous reportings,” Wan said. “I hope one day the media will no longer need to run special reports on women scientists. We are all human, doing the same kind of job,” she added.
While Chinese women in science applauded the state media’s effort in highlighting women who contributed to the success of the Chang’e 5 spacecraft landing on the moon, many said societal barriers continue to limit the ability for women in science to reach the top of the field.
“If you look at all the women working and studying in science and engineering in China, the total number is probably comparable to that of men,” said Cai Zhen, 37, an Associate Professor of Institute of Microbiology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
“But that number drops significantly when you are looking at the higher level of any field,” Cai added. She said the societal expectation for women to devote most of their time to the family is one of the biggest limitations career-driven women face.
A mother of two young children, Cai works as a microbiologist research in reusing carbon dioxide. She said it is challenging balancing ambitious career goals and her family. “I would skip a water break or any kind of break when I’m at work because I know I have to be extremely efficient during those nine hours,” she added.
In China state broadcaster’s special Chang’e report, the two other women featured were Cui Yihan, who manages rocket-launching software equipment, and Sun Zhenlian, a director of the rocket launch supporting system.
Cui is newly graduated from the University of Science and Technology of China in the eastern province of Anhui. Sun is a veteran in China’s Long-March launch system rockets. In 2019, Sun became a topic of the news when she was captured on television crying for joy after China’s Long-March 3 rocket launched successfully.
The rising female representation in Chinese science is partly driven by the increasing number of women studying science. Wan said female students in her school have grown by at least 10% in the past five years. In some classes, she said there was almost an equal amount of men and women studying.
“But representation in school is not the same thing as representation at work,” she said. “If women studying science can’t get the same level of job offers that men get, are we really seeing a fundamental societal change?”
Around the world, more women scientists are breaking through barriers. Jennifer Doudna, an American biochemist who invented CRISPR, the gene-editing technology, was awarded a Nobel prize in Chemistry this year.
Kiara Nirghin, a 20-year-old student from South Africa, invented a special molecular structure that was able to hold a large amount of water and could be used in drought-stricken areas to conserve water. Nirghin was the winner of the 2016 Google Science Fair.
The Chang’e 5 spacecraft is the fifth phase of China’s Lunar Exploration Program, which was initiated in March 2004. The final goal of the program is to send astronauts and build space stations on the moon by 2030. Chang’e 5 is expected to bring back the first lunar rock samples in more than 40 years. The Soviet Union’s Luna 24 mission was the latest to do so in 1976. The spacecraft is expected to return to the earth in the next few days.
www.reddit.com/r/Sino/comments/kce3oj/the_three_young_women_behind_chinas_change_5/
www.inkstonenews.com/society/three-young-women-behind-chinas-change-5-lunar-mission/article/3112875
by
Qin Chen
Chinese state media celebrated three women working in the Chang’e 5 lunar exploration mission. The coverage is welcomed by many Chinese women in the science field, as they try to break through the glass ceiling in a country where patriarchy runs deep.
Three days after China successfully launched the Chang’e 5 spacecraft to the moon, three women who were instrumental in its landing have been catapulted into the limelight.
The Chinese state broadcaster praised the trio’s efforts, a cultural moment similar to the 2016 American film Hidden Figures. The film celebrated three trailblazing African American women mathematicians and engineers working for The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the 1960s.
In this Chinese real-life version of Hidden Figures, one of the women, Zhou Chengyu, a 24-year-old commander of the rocket connector system in the moon exploration program, quickly became a trending topic on China’s Twitter-like Weibo.
“People were all curious about Zhou because she was such a young woman,” said Wan Chaoran, a doctorate candidate in chemical engineering at the China University of Mining and Technology, adding it was unusual for someone like Zhou to hold an important position in China’s most high-profile space exploration program.
“The report also showed an absence of acknowledging women in China’s previous reportings,” Wan said. “I hope one day the media will no longer need to run special reports on women scientists. We are all human, doing the same kind of job,” she added.
While Chinese women in science applauded the state media’s effort in highlighting women who contributed to the success of the Chang’e 5 spacecraft landing on the moon, many said societal barriers continue to limit the ability for women in science to reach the top of the field.
“If you look at all the women working and studying in science and engineering in China, the total number is probably comparable to that of men,” said Cai Zhen, 37, an Associate Professor of Institute of Microbiology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
“But that number drops significantly when you are looking at the higher level of any field,” Cai added. She said the societal expectation for women to devote most of their time to the family is one of the biggest limitations career-driven women face.
A mother of two young children, Cai works as a microbiologist research in reusing carbon dioxide. She said it is challenging balancing ambitious career goals and her family. “I would skip a water break or any kind of break when I’m at work because I know I have to be extremely efficient during those nine hours,” she added.
In China state broadcaster’s special Chang’e report, the two other women featured were Cui Yihan, who manages rocket-launching software equipment, and Sun Zhenlian, a director of the rocket launch supporting system.
Cui is newly graduated from the University of Science and Technology of China in the eastern province of Anhui. Sun is a veteran in China’s Long-March launch system rockets. In 2019, Sun became a topic of the news when she was captured on television crying for joy after China’s Long-March 3 rocket launched successfully.
The rising female representation in Chinese science is partly driven by the increasing number of women studying science. Wan said female students in her school have grown by at least 10% in the past five years. In some classes, she said there was almost an equal amount of men and women studying.
“But representation in school is not the same thing as representation at work,” she said. “If women studying science can’t get the same level of job offers that men get, are we really seeing a fundamental societal change?”
Around the world, more women scientists are breaking through barriers. Jennifer Doudna, an American biochemist who invented CRISPR, the gene-editing technology, was awarded a Nobel prize in Chemistry this year.
Kiara Nirghin, a 20-year-old student from South Africa, invented a special molecular structure that was able to hold a large amount of water and could be used in drought-stricken areas to conserve water. Nirghin was the winner of the 2016 Google Science Fair.
The Chang’e 5 spacecraft is the fifth phase of China’s Lunar Exploration Program, which was initiated in March 2004. The final goal of the program is to send astronauts and build space stations on the moon by 2030. Chang’e 5 is expected to bring back the first lunar rock samples in more than 40 years. The Soviet Union’s Luna 24 mission was the latest to do so in 1976. The spacecraft is expected to return to the earth in the next few days.