"Certainly, the expectations people have of you are kind of interesting," she said. "For me, it's people seeing the astronaut only and the stereotypes that come with that. My biggest pressure is to value myself for these other things I do to keep moving things forward even if people want you just to be that person in an orange flight suit." Astronaut Mae Jemison, the first Afro-American woman in space, served as a Peace Corps Medical Officer in Sierra Leone.
To Mae Jemison's way of thinking, a long time has passed since she served as NASA's first science mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavor in 1992, fulfilling a childhood dream
First black woman astronaut tells insight
By MARY CHALLENDER • mchallen@dmreg.com •
October 16, 2008
Ask Dr. Mae Jemison about her time as an astronaut and she'll answer resignedly, like a serious film actress who keeps getting questions about the popular sitcom she appeared in two decades decade earlier as a teenager.
To Jemison's way of thinking, a long time has passed since she served as NASA's first science mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavor in 1992, fulfilling a childhood dream.
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She was the first black woman to go into space, which has helped secure her fame.
But the Houston resident moved on to other adventures long ago and said one of the biggest challenges she faces is getting people to accept that.
Jemison will be in Des Moines tonight to speak at the annual Insights Event for the Chrysalis Foundation, which works to improve economic self-sufficiency and leadership for women and girls of all ages in Greater Des Moines through education, grant making and philanthropy.
"Certainly, the expectations people have of you are kind of interesting," she said. "For me, it's people seeing the astronaut only and the stereotypes that come with that. My biggest pressure is to value myself for these other things I do to keep moving things forward even if people want you just to be that person in an orange flight suit."
Those "other things" Jemison does include:
• Pushing the forefront of medicine with BioSentient Corp., a medical technology company that creates devices worn to monitor the body's vital signs and train people to respond favorably in stressful situations.
• Founding the Jemison Group, a company focused on integrating science and technology into our everyday lives.
• Founding and chairing the Dorothy Jemison Foundation for Excellence, a nonprofit organization whose programs include an annual international science camp.
In advance of Jemison's visit, we asked questions about her life and work.
Q. When did you realize you had become a role model?
A. Here's the deal: Everybody's a role model. I think what's been done in this society is we've taken a very good term out of sociology and made it into something it's not.
Role models can be good or bad, positive or negative. I'm probably fighting a losing battle but children model themselves after the people they're around and public figures can be images of the possible.
Sometimes, that means having to stand up for people that can't stand up for themselves or pushing ideas that are out of the mainstream that need to be considered and talked about. It means you have a responsibility to society.
You have a choice as to what to do with it but you have a responsibility.
Q. Is everyone cut out to be a "first?" What does it take?
A. I think sometimes people harbor this little fear that if I fail doing this, people are going to think I'm crazy.
For me going into space, I wouldn't have cared less if 2,000 people had gone up before me or if no one had ever gone up anywhere. I would still have had my hand up, "I want to do this."
When I went to Stanford University and studied chemical engineering, at that point in time, maybe going at 16 was a good thing because I still had that level of arrogance. I did have to thrash through a bunch of things, I did have to say, "I'm going to do this and I don't give a damn."
I think it's unfair women and minorities had to have that attitude, and I think still have to have it in some fields. It's unfair, and it did take a lot out of me to do that. I think that opening doors does help some people realize, "I'm not crazy, it's possible to do this."
Q. Tell me how bringing more women into science and technology fits in with the Chrysalis Foundation's goals of developing leaders among women and girls in this area and making them more self-sufficient.
A. We need to understand we're not just talking about Ph.D.s and research doctors. We're talking about the majority of technical jobs, the majority of jobs in the science and technological fields, do not require four-year degrees and make more money than other jobs.
If we can get girls to do better than boys in science and math all through high school, which we do, why don't they see these careers as something they can do? Why aren't they becoming electricians, which are good-paying jobs?
Look at the Chrysalis Foundation and its efforts to make women self-sufficient. We just talked about jobs that pay $60 or $70 or $120 an hour. That certainly plays into it. It equalizes opportunity.
Q. Are you 51 now or 52?
A. 51. It's always really funny, when I first got in the astronaut program, I was 30 and that was so young. Now, people want to define you by your age.
They think they know you if they know your generation. Oh, no they don't. I think there have been some fundamentally different changes.
Because of our physiology and our health, the cultural memory of what a 60-year-old once was is no longer true, even though it's still hanging around there and leading people into their characterization of folks. When it comes to age, we need to do some work developing new competencies, new ideas, new mythologies, and new standards and icons.
