We do a disservice to society as a whole if we are not providing the same kinds of encouragement
to women to contribute as we do to men.
So to me it's all about understanding, you know, that inherently women and men are of
equal worth have equal amounts to contribute and we absolutely need to make sure that we
are getting those contributions from women.
I'm Ellen Ochoa, an inventor, a NASA astronaut, and director of Johnson Space Center.
People often ask me, you know, if I decided I wanted to be an astronaut when I was a little
girl, and I say, well, of course I was following the Apollo program.
I mean, I think everybody in the country was following the Apollo program, and I was 11
when they landed on the moon for the first time.
Houston, Tranquility Base here.
The Eagle has landed.
Nobody was going to ask a girl at that time, "Hey, do you want to grow up and become an
astronaut?"
Because women weren't astronauts, and really weren't allowed to be astronauts.
T minus 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and liftoff of Space Shuttle Discovery.
It is a really exciting ride and you're at once you're trying to sort of experience the
ride, but you're also paying attention to what's going on because you have to be ready
at any second.
The year before I went on this mission I had been named to a presidential commission on
the celebration of women in American history.
So one of the things I thought of as, as I was going through this commission knowing
that I was going to be heading into space, and that there were three women on the flight,
was to get one of these flags from the National Woman's Party that was used in the early part
of the twentieth century as women were fighting for their right to vote.
So I was able to get a flag and to bring it with me into space and then to be able to
unfurl it in the new International Space Station which was so significant because of the part
that it played in getting women the right to vote.
Getting a patent wasn't something I'd ever thought about when I first went to graduate
school or even, you know, probably most of the way through my research, but we got to
a point where, I think my main thesis advisor, Professor Goodman's suggested that we talk
to our patent and technology office at Stanford.
I certainly never thought of myself as an inventor and I didn't go to graduate school
to become an inventor or to get a patent.
It really kind of came up as part of the process.
I mean there's so many different ways that invention and innovation are used in our society
today, but it is a way that people can contribute from all walks of life.
I never really thought about being a mentor to others till I was well into my career.
And yet, I see college students who are wonderful mentors to high school students.
I see high school students who are wonderful mentors to middle school students.
I wish I had thought a little bit more about that when I was those ages, but, you don't
have to wait until you're older to really make an impact on other people's lives.
I know myself how important it is to see somebody else doing that, that maybe you have something
in common with or can relate to in some way.
It was certainly an inspiration for me when the first six women were selected for the
astronaut program, and Sally Ride in particular, because she was a physics major like me, because
she went to Stanford, which is where I went for graduate school, and that helped me picture
myself as an astronaut, which really seemed like such an impossible dream.
So I know how powerful that can be, and if there's anything that I can do to help students,
you know, just dream bigger dreams, have bigger goals, think about doing more than maybe they
would have otherwise.
Then that's just hugely rewarding to me.
You know, I think about how I draw inspiration for the women who came before me and how meaningful
that is to me, and to think that I might have that role in other women's lives.
I think it's just another gift that I've gotten from NASA, with what I've been able to do there.