Girls and Women in Astronomy

I just came back from an event I was invited in New Zealand: ¨Girls and Women in Astronomy´ in tandem with the United Nations `Women in Science Day´. I was invited to give a talk at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, about my experience as a woman in astronomy and science.

Women have made immense contributions to astronomy, yet their work has been many times unrecognized or even restricted. Nowadays there are more and more women studying astronomy. As many as men? Well no… so in order to see more female astronomers we need to see more women studying astronomy and more girls dreaming about exploring the universe. Because let me tell you, if you have a passion you are going to find that you have this incredible amount of energy that is driving you towards your dream, no matter what people say.

Now in the XXI century, we women, can be unstoppable, and we have the freedom and the opportunity to dream the impossible dream, to reach for the stars. And as we travel into space, to the moon, and soon to Mars and beyond, there is but on thought to leave with you as you read this post: the dream is alive.

Happily, it is no longer unusual to meet women who are physicists, astronomers or project scientists at NASA. Are there still men who think women shouldn’t do science? One or two maybe, but are we women going to do nothing about it? Heck no!