
Mercury 13
2018 · Film · documentary · 79 min
Directed by Heather Walsh, David Sington
After rigorous testing in 1961, a small group of skilled female pilots are asked to step aside when only men are selected for spaceflight.
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But in this specific example - women in aviation - we do need to be careful, because for many years when people said "women can't do this" they did mean "no woman can do this, no matter how hard they train".
See for one notable example see the First Lady Astronaut Trainees (also called the Mercury 13). For years the route to become a pilot for NASA included being a military test pilot, and that was forbidden to women, and so women were unable to become NASA pilots even if they outperformed men on NASA's tests.
https://history.nasa.gov/printFriendly/flats.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_13
https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/29/17393698/netflix-documentary-mercury-13-women-space-astronauts-margaret-weitekamp-interview