October 15, 2019 was a historic day for women! Nasa recently sent an all-female team to space without any male crewmates—the first time in history an all-female team has completed a spacewalk. Originally the spacewalk was scheduled for March 19, 2019, but it was canceled because there were only medium-sized space suits. Months after the cancellation, the next spacewalk was scheduled for the end of October, but luckily it was moved forward to be earlier in the month. Christina Koch and Jessica Meir are the women who carried out the spacewalk. Before Koch and Meir, only 14 women had ever carried out spacewalks, compared to the 213 men who have. 

This accomplishment was discussed during the latest meeting of Women’s Empowerment Club. A discussion question came up on how to get women more interested in joining STEM fields. Students thought that it’s hard to encourage young women to join STEM fields when they themselves are not interested. Fortunately, percentages of women in STEM fields have gone up in recent years, but they are still not where they should be. This spacewalk was incredibly important for the future of women in STEM, and now young women who dream to reach the stars have amazing role models to look up to, but how many people knew that this happened?

I asked around the school to see if students knew about this accomplishment and if this news should be in mainstream news. Bishall Ellison, a senior, said that “no,” he had not heard about this news and thought that it should “definitely” be in the mainstream news. Allison Lydic, a sophomore, said she “saw something about it on Instagram, but only once. It definitely should be in mainstream media.” Boulder High students seem to think that mainstream news sites blow past these historical events and act as though nothing ever happened. This has been shown time and time again how important news regarding women is rarely covered in mainstream media, or how some news sources view women in higher positions in politics are viewed as “immature” or “crazy.” 

Take Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, for example. In some news sources regularly viewed, many politicians didn’t recognize Cortez for her success, but for how she will “shake up politics for the years to come.” On the other side, when the USA Women’s Soccer Team won the World Cup, the players on the team got well-deserved recognition all over social media. Boulder High Students believe that these women should be recognized for their accomplishments on a larger scale, inspiring young women all over the world to follow their dreams.