Space XX

As states and powerful companies compete in a new space race, humanity’s future on Earth and beyond is being decided right now – and women are too often being left out.

Outer space is celebrated as humanity’s next great frontier, yet not everyone is set to have an equal share in its future. Once imagined as a global commons of scientific cooperation and cosmic discovery, space is increasingly framed as a ‘warfighting domain’, fuelled by (para)militarism, privatisation and patriarchy. It is concentrating wealth and power in the private sector, dominated by a ‘broligarchy’ of space entrepreneurs obsessed with starships and galatic conquest.

Elise Stephenson led a world-first research study of gender and diversity in space, involving more than 70 countries. In Space XX, she unpacks the findings and speaks with almost 1000 pioneering women, men, trans and non-binary people, from astronauts to engineers to ethicists – including Australia’s first female astronaut, Katherine Bennell-Pegg, and Space Agent One, Megan Clark. She reveals a story of inequality, exclusion and denigration of women in STEM. And she imagines better ways forward, including practical, evidence-based ideas that allow all humanity to flourish, informed by First Nations, feminist and futures thinking.

Back in the 1960s, a group of elite American women pilots excelled in astronaut training – but their training was abandoned, and so the Moon landing became ‘one small step for man’. Sixty years later, it was announced that no woman would fly in Artemis III, a critical voyage in the ambition to return humanity to the Moon. Compelling and urgent, Space XX exposes the stakes of our extraterrestrial trajectory and argues that a more inclusive future can – and must – be fought for.

'Both meticulously researched and deeply practical, and driven by a passion for change, Space XX is a powerful contribution in the ongoing fight for gender equality and women in leadership.' – Julia Gillard