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Women's participation in space activities and the importance of government's support: Literature review and critical analysis. Case study: Central America.

Abstract:

In most countries, the aerospace industry still remains a heavily male-dominated field even after fifty years from Valentina Tereshkova, the first female astronaut sent into space. It was revealed that the ratio of women in this industry is extremely low as compared to the men and they take non-executive and nontechnical positions rather than a technical role due to the distinctive challenges which are different from those in the more gender-balanced fields. Since these obstacles influence women' career success as professionals and their willingness to stay, many concerns have been raised recently. Considering that aerospace industry has gained much greater significance not only in traditional aerospace countries but emerging markets in non-traditional ones, the continuous gender bias and inequality should be solved by providing women with more chances to leverage their unique capabilities to succeed in different areas of aerospace industry in the coming future. Against this backdrop, the purpose of this study is to scrutinise the current status of women's participation in aerospace in order to diagnose difficulties and suggest coping strategies of individual governments and international organisations that enable women to involve in as well as continue on their career paths. The study includes the exploratory and rigorous literature investigation taking advantage of the latest data. The results of this study are valuable to develop and push forward initiatives and strategies geared towards attracting, integrating and maintaining women in this field.