Space XX

As countries and powerful companies compete in a new space race, humanity’s future is being decided right now – and women are being left out.

Outer space, once imagined as a global commons of cooperation and discovery, is increasingly seen as a ‘warfighting domain’. Privatisation and patriarchy are concentrating wealth and power among a broligarchy of entrepreneurs looking to the stars to manifest their earthly destiny.

Elise Stephenson led world-first research into gender in the space sector across more than 80 countries. In Space XX, she talks to almost 1000 pioneering women, men, trans, and non-binary people – from astronauts to engineers to ethicists – from Australia’s first female astronaut to its Space Agent One, from the US Space Force to NASA – uncovering a story of inequality, exclusion, and denigration of women in STEM. She also charts a better way forward: practical, evidence-based ideas for a world that allows all humanity to flourish, informed by First Nations, feminist, and futures thinking.

Back in the 1960s, the Moon landing became ‘one small step for man’. More than 60 years on, humanity is preparing to go back – and farther than ever before. What part will women play? Compelling and urgent, Space XX exposes the stakes of our extraterrestrial trajectory and argues that a more inclusive future can – and must – be fought for.