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392 reviews for:
Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us, from Missiles to the Moon to Mars
Nathalia Holt
3.8 AVERAGE
392 reviews for:
Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us, from Missiles to the Moon to Mars
Nathalia Holt
3.8 AVERAGE
Really fascinating book. It's a great pairing with "Hidden Figures". This book as a bonus gives a history how the term "computer" went from being a job description to a thing we all use. I loved learning about how involved the women at JPL were in all the missions.
Full review to come. It took me a while to read this book because it's chocked full of scientific and personal detail in these women's lives. Nathalia Holt completed this book after meeting and interviewing the women and extensive research.
Such a great story! I learned so much that explains the division between software engineers and other engineers and between women and men in the workplace. I wish the writing had flowed better. There were several places where I had to go back a few paragraphs to figure out that the focus had changed from one character to another and I know a lot about the events covered in the book.
If there's a second printing I hope the text gets a round or two of good editing. It deserves it.
If there's a second printing I hope the text gets a round or two of good editing. It deserves it.
A fascinating read about the women, the human computers, who were at the heart of the Jet Propulsion Lab's adventures in space.
If you like Hidden Figures, you’ll like this book. It’s Hidden Figures of JPL. These women were instrumental in early days of planetary exploration.
Don’t let the title fool you. The description of women doing things we stereotypically expect women to do in contrast to calculating orbital trajectories shows that they can both be women and mothers as well as scientists and engineers. They are just as smart and as capable as any many. It also showed what a unique place JPL was and is for women to use their mathematical abilities that helped us to get to the stars.
Don’t let the title fool you. The description of women doing things we stereotypically expect women to do in contrast to calculating orbital trajectories shows that they can both be women and mothers as well as scientists and engineers. They are just as smart and as capable as any many. It also showed what a unique place JPL was and is for women to use their mathematical abilities that helped us to get to the stars.
Mixed feelings about this book. A really fascinating look at the history of space exploration from an unusual point of view, but not terribly well written. Lots of loose ends of narrative, and it relies on dates far too much. One doesn't, or at least I don't, remember the date of everything that's happening in a book, I like to have the passage of time demonstrated by something more like "after five years", or "just three months later". I was forever skipping back to see how much time had passed since the last mention of a date.
Weirdly sexist too. I don't have a problem with talk of weddings and clothes, I'm sure women (even highly intelligent ones) were interested in these things, as they are today, and it does help to put the history in context. What I find odd is the "women only" hiring practices. Seems strange.
Weirdly sexist too. I don't have a problem with talk of weddings and clothes, I'm sure women (even highly intelligent ones) were interested in these things, as they are today, and it does help to put the history in context. What I find odd is the "women only" hiring practices. Seems strange.
informative
medium-paced
I learned a lot from this book, but I think the biggest thing I learned was that I don’t really have an interest in rockets or rocket science as a topic. So this book was not quite for me. That point aside, there was still a lot about the book I liked. I thought it did a very good job following the women and their careers and lives. I liked that it focused purely on the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and several of the women there. I did struggle a bit at first, feeling overwhelmed by all the women being introduced, but as the book went on and the ‘cast’ remained consistent it was easy to remember everyone. I also liked how it was arranged by decade, and referenced many of the important historical events of the time period. Lastly, I thought it had a very strong ending, and I found the epilogue especially moving. But at the end of the day I just did not find the topic of rockets and rocket science that interesting, and I never cared about the women’s work as much as I was supposed to. So overall while I liked this book it was not as fascinating as I hoped.
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexism, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Racism, War
informative
medium-paced
'Rise of the Rocket Girls' is an excellent read, as well as a well-researched and organized history of the involvement of women 'computers' working for the Jet Propulsion Lab. Nathalia Holt's book left me feeling happy.
World War II ushered in a new desire from all combatants for improved weapons of war. All involved governments spent as much money as they could on stocking up on weapons. Missile development was in its infancy before the war had started, but of course, once the war began in earnest, everybody realized what a great weapon a missile would be, especially for the government that first solved the dual problems of launching them and of aiming them accurately at a target once launched.
Private hobbyists, universities and governments were sporadically working on missile technology. Even after the war started they had not yet become a cohesive group. Separately at first, groups of scientists and engineers, sometimes simply friends who decided to work together, searched for abandoned warehouses, factories and airfields to do research into building missiles. As their work was literally explosive, they needed places far from human habitats.
Some of the men - they were all men initially working more and more officially for the government and for the private companies who formed research laboratories - had girlfriends who also became interested in the work. Luckily for history, a few of the women had been born with the maths gene and so had studied math as a hobby. Not many universities allowed women to enroll in math classes, but a few did. Some women had had fathers who indulged their daughters' interest in math, too. In time, in these early days, a few of the women became accepted as auxiliary members of the teams working on missile development. As certain women rose to leadership roles in the newly formed math calculation department at the Jet Propulsion Lab - women were the best at the work - they began the work on the maths necessary to shoot rockets accurately. These women became known as the computers.
Just as designing missiles was all by hand, so was figuring out trajectories. Eventually, machines would take over the work of solving mathematical equations, and these machines would take on the name by which the women's math department had been called - Computers. Eventually, the work changed from missile trajectories to working out how to fly rockets to Mars, Venus, Jupiter and Uranus. Later, the work became how to direct rockets to land a man on the Moon.
None of these women hired as computers had engineering degrees (many colleges had rules forbidding women to study engineering), so they were left out a lot by upper management in certain meetings and in being respected. However, lower ranking departmental employees had to be much more involved together in consultation and in the work, so respect slowly grew. The women's salaries was a third to half of what the men earned, although they were doing either the same work or work which was essential to getting rockets off the ground and to landing where they needed to be. And like career women today, they struggled with the events of marriages and child care interfering with their jobs. However, unlike most women today, they were forced to resign after a baby was born, career over.
Sigh.
The story of the rocket girls is generally a happy one, though. The author explains how the women helped NASA put people and rovers and satellites into space, describing how women were involved from the 1940's to today. She does so through interesting biographies of the women and an easy to understand history of rocket development (no maths for the reader to struggle with). Some of the spectacular successes and failures of rocket history are explained, including information I did not know before. In the back of the book are extensive notes and an index.
I highly recommend 'Rise of the Rocket Girls'!
World War II ushered in a new desire from all combatants for improved weapons of war. All involved governments spent as much money as they could on stocking up on weapons. Missile development was in its infancy before the war had started, but of course, once the war began in earnest, everybody realized what a great weapon a missile would be, especially for the government that first solved the dual problems of launching them and of aiming them accurately at a target once launched.
Private hobbyists, universities and governments were sporadically working on missile technology. Even after the war started they had not yet become a cohesive group. Separately at first, groups of scientists and engineers, sometimes simply friends who decided to work together, searched for abandoned warehouses, factories and airfields to do research into building missiles. As their work was literally explosive, they needed places far from human habitats.
Some of the men - they were all men initially working more and more officially for the government and for the private companies who formed research laboratories - had girlfriends who also became interested in the work. Luckily for history, a few of the women had been born with the maths gene and so had studied math as a hobby. Not many universities allowed women to enroll in math classes, but a few did. Some women had had fathers who indulged their daughters' interest in math, too. In time, in these early days, a few of the women became accepted as auxiliary members of the teams working on missile development. As certain women rose to leadership roles in the newly formed math calculation department at the Jet Propulsion Lab - women were the best at the work - they began the work on the maths necessary to shoot rockets accurately. These women became known as the computers.
Just as designing missiles was all by hand, so was figuring out trajectories. Eventually, machines would take over the work of solving mathematical equations, and these machines would take on the name by which the women's math department had been called - Computers. Eventually, the work changed from missile trajectories to working out how to fly rockets to Mars, Venus, Jupiter and Uranus. Later, the work became how to direct rockets to land a man on the Moon.
None of these women hired as computers had engineering degrees (many colleges had rules forbidding women to study engineering), so they were left out a lot by upper management in certain meetings and in being respected. However, lower ranking departmental employees had to be much more involved together in consultation and in the work, so respect slowly grew. The women's salaries was a third to half of what the men earned, although they were doing either the same work or work which was essential to getting rockets off the ground and to landing where they needed to be. And like career women today, they struggled with the events of marriages and child care interfering with their jobs. However, unlike most women today, they were forced to resign after a baby was born, career over.
Sigh.
The story of the rocket girls is generally a happy one, though. The author explains how the women helped NASA put people and rovers and satellites into space, describing how women were involved from the 1940's to today. She does so through interesting biographies of the women and an easy to understand history of rocket development (no maths for the reader to struggle with). Some of the spectacular successes and failures of rocket history are explained, including information I did not know before. In the back of the book are extensive notes and an index.
I highly recommend 'Rise of the Rocket Girls'!