How Star Trek Advanced the Cause of Gender Equality

Authors Jason Self

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How Star Trek Advanced the Cause of Gender Equality Home

Wed, 16 May 2018 Linux-libre
Following up on a topic that I started back in 2015, here's some more about
contributions that Star Trek made to society. GitWeb

The Women's Liberation Movement of the 1960s started a change in society. Prior to How To
that time, women were expected to get married, tend to the house, and take care of
the kids. Women with careers were few and far between. Even fewer could expect to Articles
have a position of authority in what was considered to be a man's world. While some
women worked low level jobs due to financial problems at home, the idea of a woman
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pursuing a profession was generally scoffed at and dismissed. (Sadly, this expectation
persisted long after the 1960s and is still prevalent in some places today.)
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It was about that time a television show came along that presented a future of gender
equality. In this series, women and men worked alongside one another without gender Contact Me
even being an issue. Professional women were shown to be as efficient at their jobs
as their male counterparts. For 1960s America, this was revolutionary. GPL enforced

As early as 1964, Gene Roddenberry produced his first pilot episode for what would
become the original Star Trek series. In that pilot episode called "The Cage", viewers If you appreciate any of the things I
were introduced to a 23rd century starship called the U.S.S. Enterprise. Shockingly for am doing you can make a donation.
many viewers of the time, the episode featured a female first officer.

NBC executives rejected this pilot. Gene Roddenberry has said that one of the issues
was having a woman in such a high level position of authority. Still, he was given the
rare green light to produce a second pilot episode. The stipulation: He had to recast
the crew. The only survivor from the original cast would be the Vulcan science officer,
Mr. Spock. In the second pilot, Spock also assumed the role of the first officer while
serving under Captain James T. Kirk.

While a woman would no longer serve as the first officer, Roddenberry did feature an
African American woman in another prominent role in the original Star Trek series.
Nichelle Nichols was cast as Lieutenant Uhura, the ship's communications officer.
Uhura had the respect of her crewmates and proved to be skilled at her job. While she
would never actually be shown to assume control of the ship, she was fourth in the
chain of command.

Each week, viewers would see a woman working alongside men with no sense of
inequality. As shown in the parallel universe of the episode "Mirror, Mirror" Uhura was
quite capable of not only performing her duties but defending herself, as well.

Sadly, Uhura was the only regular female character that exerted much authority. Nurse
Chapel and Yeoman Rand were both in positions of servility. Not even Star Trek was
able to push the envelope too far. Men continued to dominate the top positions in the
series. But women were interspersed among the men in other upper level positions.

In the first season episode "Space Seed", Lieutenant Marla McGivers served as the
ship's historian specializing in 20th century. Unfortunately, she proved to be weak-
willed and easily manipulated. In "Mudd's Women", the crew of the Enterprise
happened upon three strong and sexually-powerful women. It was later discovered,
though, that the main goal of these women was to find husbands.

In most cases, women in the Star Trek series were cast as love interests and/or as
disposable characters. When women were to exude some level of competence, they
were typically cast alongside a strong male counterpart. Such was the case in
"Patterns of Force." Daras, a woman who had successfully infiltrated a Nazi-like
regime, was offset by a man (Isak) who had also infiltrated the regime.

Perhaps the most powerful depiction of a strong woman by a guest star was in the
Hugo Award-winning episode, "The City on the Edge of Forever." Joan Collins played
Edith Keeler, a progressive woman from the 1930s. Keeler was a social worker at the
21st Street Mission in New York City. Three members of the Enterprise crew -- Kirk,
Spock, and McCoy -- traveled back in time and met her. Keeler greatly impacted Kirk
with her passionate and optimistic view of the future.

In the subsequent series of the Star Trek franchise, women were able to assume a
variety of prominent and powerful roles: chief medical officer, head of security, captain,
starship engineer, ambassador, planetary leader... even as admirals in Starfleet.

The original Star Trek series started strong and with good intentions, but it failed to
live up to its potential. While it was progressive and supportive of the Women's
Liberation Movement in many respects, it was hampered by the prevailing attitudes of
the day. Still, Star Trek helped promote and legitimize the plight of women in an era
that preferred to repress them. Even though it didn't always get it right, Star Trek
pointed forward to the gains women would make over the next decades.