Anita Sengupta is one of many successful women in STEM careers. As an aerospace engineer, she attended the well-known University of Southern California and graduated with a PhD in aerospace and mechanical engineering. At the age of only 35, she has already worked in the extremely prestigious institution NASA and is currently working alongside Caltech with the Cold Atom Laboratory. Some of the notable accomplishments she has made in her field include her impressive role in leading the invention of an innovative parachute system, which was used to aid the landing of the renowned Mars Rover.
As a woman in such a male-dominated field of work, Anita has encountered several gender-based challenges throughout her career. As she states in an interview with Women You Should Know (a feminist website), “There can be a camaraderie amongst men that can make a female engineer’s career path trajectory slower and more difficult. I face it almost every day in one way or another,”. In acknowledging these difficulties, Anita urges young women aspiring to work in STEM careers to actively pursue their passions, saying that “It is important to have diversity in the workplace because that leads to the diversity of thought and new and innovative solutions,”. Anita’s incredible work in the field of science is a heartening inspiration to all women and girls who aspire to STEM-based careers, and a representation of all that women can achieve if given the opportunity. The extraordinary achievements accomplished by Anita serve to demonstrate that although the challenges associated with gender equality in the workplace are far from over, major strides have been made in allowing women to pursue the careers of their choice. For as Anita exhibits through her endeavours; even the sky itself is limitless to those who possess the motivation to venture beyond it.
References:
Anita Sengupta
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Sengupta
Why NASA’s Anita Sengupta has the coolest job - really - in the universe
http://www.chicagotribune.com/bluesky/originals/ct-anita-sengupta-nasa-bsi-20150513-story.html
http://www.womenyoushouldknow.net/women-talk-10-questions-with-rocket-scientist-dr-anita-sengupta/
Written by Vanessa Marryatt and Hannah Waller
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