Date of publication
Feb 16, 2026
Category:
Practice Insight
It's (not) rocket science to think with gender: supporting students to develop confidence in talking about gender through outer space outreach activities
by
Eleanor S Armstrong
,
Doris Erhard
,
Manuela Gallistl
,
Sarah Rosenbicher
,
Christian Klösch
“What might our lives in outer space look like in the future? And how will those lives be shaped by gender?” These were the questions that directed students in a science communication activity in the Vienna Museum of Science and Technology in 2024. This Practice Insight reflects on this project and demonstrates how an expansive focus on gender in the long-term engagement project allowed student participants to challenge and pluralize normative masculinities of outer space futures, instead envisaging cosmic lives that supported traditional women's crafts, or gender-inclusive third spaces and city design. Rather than framing “women” and “girls” as the only subject for gender-oriented activities, this project encouraged students and educators to recognize that gender is done many different ways by different groups in societies. The paper provides prompts to readers to support them implementing similar transformations in their own science communication practices.