I recognize that this is something to be grateful for, but it has always been a sort of distant intellectual feeling. Whether by luck, or because things really have changed, I myself have never once encountered a coworker or a teacher who has made me feel that 'girls can't do science': not in my high-school advanced math classes, not college as a math major or grad school while getting my MA in math, or at any of the companies where I have worked as a software designer.

I am so glad I read it, because never before have I truly internalized the fact that the freedoms and opportunities I have as a woman are founded on the efforts of the women (and men!) who came before me. It was fascinating, inspiring, and infuriating. But more than that, this book really opened my eyes and made me think about privilege and prejudice. And indeed one of the very interesting things about this book is the window it provides into the sort of intense screening and training astronauts have to go through. I had been curious initially because I am a fan of space exploration (and I just wrote a book about an earth-girl who runs away to join an intergalactic circus). This one is non-fiction, something I don't read enough of.

Almost astronauts by tanya lee stone