STEM-Professional Women's Exclusion in the Canadian Space Industry

Stefanie Ruel, DBA, is an early career scholar, who successfully defended her dissertation at Athabasca University, Canada, in late November 2017. She is an Assistant Professor at Concordia University, John Molson School of Business, Canada. Her research focus includes a critical examination of intersectionality, gender and diversity in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) context, and in the area of ‘forced’ ageing and menopause. She has presented at a number of academic conferences, including Academy of Management (AOM), the Critical Management Studies Conference, and the Gender, Work, and Organization (GWO) Conference.

‘You probably haven’t read many books about women scientists working in the space industry, perhaps because there are not many (in both senses). This book, STEM-Professional Women’s Exclusion in the Canadian Space Industry, from a senior space scientist, formerly the only female mission manager in the Canadian Space Agency, examines in depth and in detail the identities, experiences, careers and career anchors, discourses and contexts of women, and some men, in the sector. By way of expert feminist intersectional poststructuralist analysis, it brings many insights, not just for STEM-professions and professionals, but the wider worlds of men’s organizational domination and men’s protected and excluding bastions.’

• Chapter 1. The View from Earth Chapter 2. Forms of Context Chapter 3. Forms of Knowledge Chapter 4. Forms of Experiences Chapter 5. Research Methodology Chapter 6. STEM Professional Women’s Range of Anchor Points Chapter 7. Canadian Space Industry’s Forms of Context and STEM-Professional Women’s Dominant Ideas and Practices Chapter 8. Relationship between STEM-Professional Women’s Anchor Points and Forms of Context, and Forms of Experiences Chapter 9. Revealing the ‘How’ of an Exclusionary Order, and Social Justice Initiatives Final Word: My Journey