‘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
‘A critically important book for current times. Dr Stephenson clearly makes the argument that increasing equality and representation in space is not only good for humanity’s future, but also to ensure all humans flourish here on Earth today.’ Professor Tracy Smart AO
‘Gender: the final frontier. In space no one can hear you scream … at misogyny. The space sector has always been an evocative place for human imagination and striving. But Elise Stephenson shows how we might simply replicate negative gender practices from Earth that would hold us back from the potential the space sector holds for progress. This book is a tour de force, explaining what gender equality in space could look like and why all earthlings would benefit.’ Professor Susan Harris Rimmer
‘This book interrogates incisively how power, capital and gender shape emerging domains, reminding us that new frontiers are rarely free from old hierarchies. Bringing a much-needed gender lens to a field where gendered knowledge remains strikingly absent, Elise Stephenson exposes the risks of reproducing long-standing patterns of exclusion when women are sidelined from leadership and decision-making in space. By refusing to treat space as exceptional, the book situates it within familiar dynamics of inequality, raising questions that resonate far beyond the sector itself.’ Professor Ramona Vijeyarasa, UTS Chair in Gender and the Law
‘Is space a place where men and women can do things differently? Or will we simply recreate the same old inequality between men and women that exists on Earth? Stephenson notes that anything built without women will be inhospitable to them and so it is important to include women in space organisations from the very beginning. Have we? Stephenson’s original research is the first to address this important question.’ Professor Valerie M. Hudson, Director of the Program on Women, Peace, and Security, The Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University
‘SpaceXX offers a timely, rigorously researched examination of power, inequality and governance in the contemporary space sector. Blending original global data with sharp political analysis, Elise Stephenson reveals how earthly hierarchies are reproduced beyond Earth – and why inclusive approaches to space matter for human flourishing now and in the future.’ Wendy Cobb, Professor of Strategy and Security Studies at the School of Advanced Air and Space Studies (SAASS), Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama
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.
