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CHAPTER 1The Myth of Progress

As society sees what women can do, as women see what women can do, there will be more women out there doing things, and we'll all be better off for it.

—Ruth Bader Ginsburg

In 1983, when NASA was helping astronaut Sally Ride prepare to become the first American woman in space, their team of engineers put together a care package of all the things they thought she might need while living in zero gravity some 200 miles above the Earth's surface. Included among these items were tampons.

Scientists weighed them and considered carefully whether the right kind for the confined space would be deodorized or unscented. NASA is extremely particular about what is allowed to go onto their spacecraft, where every square inch of capacity counts, so getting it right was a big deal. They even tied the tampons together with their strings, so they wouldn't scatter and float away. Their next question: how many?

“Is 100 the right number?” one of the physicists famously asked her.

“No,” she replied, deadpan. “It is not the right number.”¹

One. Hundred. Tampons. For a six‐day stay on the Space Shuttle. Thoughtful? Very. Absurd? Absolutely!

Yet the team persisted. (I am sure it won't be much of a surprise to most of you that the NASA staffers fretting about Ms. Ride's period needs were all men.)

“What if you get stuck up there?” they asked. Ms. Ride assured them she was quite certain she wouldn't need 100 tampons, even if the mission were to go a few days overtime. ...