Zoë Strickland | Editor-in-Chief
Are women fit for space travel? NASA in 1961 thought the answer was a resounding no. One of Netflix’s newest documentaries, “Mercury 13,” explores the fight that resulted from this opinion. “Mercury 13” is informative and vital for documenting the path to gender equality, specifically in regards to women in the STEM field. However, its slow start and tendency to repeat points made it difficult for me to fully engross myself in the film.
“Mercury 13” sheds a light on the stories of 13 of the 25 women who took part in secret testing that would determine if they were fit to be sent into space. The testing, administered by William Lovelace — the creator of the male astronaut test for NASA — was conducted primarily because of Lovelace’s curiosity, rather than because of NASA’s interest.
The documentary is focused on the 13 women who passed the testing and were technically eligible for spaceflight. Though some of the women performed better than others, it was found that some even had better scores than their male counterparts. However, the unsanctioned tests were a wash because of Lovelace’s inability to convince NASA that women were fit for space.
In addition to tracking the test-related plight of women trying to achieve space travel, “Mercury 13” also outlines the governmental backlash that the testing resulted in.
The documentary starts off dreadfully slow. Though it hits every mark in regards to exposition, it takes 20 minutes to really get into the main parts of what actually led to the spaceflight testing.
“Mercury 13” isn’t trying to uncover the great mystery of why women weren’t allowed to be sent up to space — it was purely because of the sexism perpetuated by the government, male astronauts and societal beliefs.
While the documentary makes a good point of including source content from interviews with the Mercury 13 from the time of the trial — including a reporter asking one of them about how she was going to find the time to be an astronaut as well as a mother — at times it felt like the same points were being made in monotony. Because of this, this documentary felt like something I would watch in a classroom rather than on my own time.
That being said, the film was overall enjoyable. The more recent interviews conducted with some of the women show a level of tenacity that everyone should aspire to. The women are vivacious and determined to better the landscape of gender equality in STEM fields. Their discourse regarding the events they were involved in livens up the documentary tenfold.
Undoubtedly, my favorite part of “Mercury 13” was its ability to maintain a sense of unity between all of the female pilots involved. In addition to having interview clips from most of the surviving women included, the documentary also includes interviews with women who were affected by the efforts of the Mercury 13, like Eileen Collins, the first female pilot of a space shuttle. This not only emphasized the scope of women affected, but it also grounded the efforts in a more tangible way. It’s clear that, while the Mercury 13 women were unable to achieve spaceflight, they’re still invested in future women who want to be sent to space.
As someone who’s interested in both space and gender issues, I liked this documentary. “Mercury 13” took two things I love learning about and discussed the crossroads between them. However, I wouldn’t recommend it to people who are hesitant to watch documentaries, or who have little to no interest in the subject matter. It’s slow to start, and admittedly took some trying to get through.
Contact the author at journaleditor@wou.edu
Photo by: nasa.gov
