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With equality of pay and the drive to get more women in top executive jobs reaching the headlines in our current era, does the world of the future have women in the same roles they occupy now, or do they have them in traditionally male-dominated jobs?
#SorryNotSorry for the ten minutes plus of Star Trek talk. This is Charlotte and Megan left alone together, after all. And boy do we get excited when allowed to gush over our favourite science fiction texts!
We celebrate the wonderful women who are shattering the glass ceiling in one of our favourite genres, from doctors, mechanics, and military leaders, there are some truly inspirational and badass women working hard in scifi.
Texts covered in this episode include:
- Star Trek: The Original Series
- Star Trek: The Next Generation
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
- Star Trek: Voyager
- Star Trek: Discovery
- Star Wars: A New Hope
- Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
- Star Wars: Attack of the Clones
- Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens
- Star Wars: The Last Jedi
- Battlestar Galactica
- Live. Die. Repeat. / Edge of Tomorrow
- Lazarus
- The Stars are Legion by Kameron Hurley
- Metal Gear Solid
- Saga by Brian K Vaughan
- The Terminator
- The High Ground by Melinda Snodgrass
- Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee
- Wool by Hugh Howey
- Dredd (2000 AD)
- Robocop
- Killjoys
- Torchwood
- Fringe
- Blade Runner 2049
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- Lilo and Stitch
- Aliens
- Pitch Black
- Elysium
- Snowpiercer
- Alien
- Terminator 2: Judgement Day
- The Handmaid’s Tale
- Mad Max: Fury Road
- The Fifth Element
- Metroid
- Y: The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughan
- The Power by Naomi Alderman
- Firefly
- A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
- A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers
- Planetfall by Emma Newman
- The Expanse
- Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer
- Shattered Minds by Laura Lam
- The Matrix
- Autonomous by Analee Newitz
- Interstellar
- The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Further reading:
- https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/664180/UK_Armed_Forces_Biannual_Diversity_Statistics_1_October_2017-b.pdf
- http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/lists/10-wonderful-sci-fi-women
- https://www.stylist.co.uk/people/20-coolest-women-in-sci-fi/18042
- http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/16008/top-10-strong-female-science-fiction-film-characters
Loving the Star Trek talk! I’m a huge fan of TOS & DS9 – not so much the rest. Anyway, the reason Tasha Yar was killed off was because the actor wanted to leave. She didn’t feel the role was being developed. Also, no mention of Major Kira in DS9 – freedom fighter trying to fit into the role of military liaison to the Federation after independance is achieved – plenty of character conflict and personal development.
If I may add a couple women to the list:
Amy Adams as the linguist and university professor in the superb movie Arrival. Not only is she a genius, but she is courageous and she makes a tough choice despite knowing how it will end up. Plus, in her spare time she literally saves the world, and is instrumental in saving an alien species.
Jodie Foster as the astronomer in Contact. I don’t particularly like the movie, but she is undeniably the key to that story.
Sandra Bullock in Gravity is an engineer who is also incredibly tough and wicked smart. She learned Russian to become an astronaut and then figured out the controls to a Chinese spacecraft. I would’ve been dead a dozen times over.
Speaking of women authority figures, my personal favorite in recent years is Agent Peggy Carter, introduced in Captain America: The First Avenger, followed up by two excellent seasons of her own show, Agent Carter, as well as cameos in other Marvel films such as Ant-Man. Not only was she smart and capable in a man’s world, she was so undeniably good that she became a founding member of the preeminent peace force in that universe, SHIELD.
I think it’s also important to give credit to Fiona Staples, the co-creator of the comic Saga. When Brian K. Vaughn said he didn’t want the female lead to be a typical redhead, she asked, “Why does she need to be white at all?” An ah-ha moment for Vaughn, and we’re all the richer for Staples’ insight.