Today in History – June 17, 2011 – women of Saudi Arabia launch a civil disobedience campaign to fight for the right to drive automobiles. One example is Jajla Barasain (photo upper right), who is pursuing a master’s degree in business administration in the U.S. and was home for her summer break. She said that the support from social media sites by both men and women motivated her to participate. Her reluctant father sat next to her in the passenger seat. In a recent NPR interview she says: “When I read what people were saying on Twitter, I decided that I have to do something about it . . . I have to say something and take an action today because it’s a very important day.”In another story, 39-year old Maha al-Qahtani , an IT specialist, packed an overnight bag and folded prayer rug before she left to drive in case she was thrown in jail.

The pressure to launch a campaign for the right to drive began when 32-year-old Mana al-Shariff was imprisoned in May 2011 after she drove in Riyadh. Activists compare her to Rosa Parks and the analogy is apt in that she inspired similar action by others through her  “women2drive” internet campaign when she first posted a video of her driving. Six members of the U.S. Congress were inspired to author an open letter in support of the campaign. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) joined the twitter campaign with: “Beep beep and solidarity to the Saudi women & supporters challenging the driving ban!” Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, issued a statement: “Not allowing women behind the wheel in Saudi Arabia is an immense barrier to their freedom of movement, and severely limits their ability to carry out everyday activities as they see fit, such as going to work or the supermarket, or picking up their children from school”.  Others are blogging on whether Saudi Women’s driving protest will usher in more social reforms. This muslim female blogger captures this spirit with: Women To Drive – Let’s Go!.

Ironically there is no formal law against women driving, rather the prohibition is embodied in religious fatwahs that include restrictions on what women can do and is enforced by the “religious police” called the Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. As women can not legally get a drivers license in Saudi Arabia, I suppose a legitimate arrest might be for driving without a license. I note that some of the drivers were using international drivers licenses obtained outside the country. Saudi Arabia is the only country “banning” women to drive and King Abdullah did try to reverse this ban a few years ago, but met too much resistance. There was some confusion on the legal aspects, however, and city police were not sure what they should do during the June 17 protest. One issued a ticket and two women endured brief detentions, followed by immediate releases. As far as I can tell all of the women drivers were were heavily covered and were accompanied by a male guardian.

One must view this action in the context of other constraints on women’s mobility in Saudi Arabia. Women are not allowed to travel on their own without some kind of male guardian: husband, brother, or even a son. During my first visit there, I convinced my family to come with me. I was issued a document by the Saudi embassy verifying that I was allowed to travel alone in case I got stopped (my family didn’t really want to go with me while I was conducting business). I found to my distress in trying to go to one meeting that women are not allowed to flag down a cab, but they can hire regular personal drivers and these drivers seem to take the role of a male guardian. A luxury for the rich, this option is not open for women of more modest means. Even if one did not want to grant women the freedom of mobility, in general, proponents argue that women drivers might be valuable for family emergencies.

This recent action reminds me of a story I once read about how the bicycle was a technology that provided freedom to Victorian women. The bicycle provided women exercise and motivated more practical clothes. More importantly, the cycle allowed woman to travel much farther then before without being under the surveillance of guardian husband. Some claim that the suffrage movement greatly benefited by the ability of women to organize and attend meetings and rallies without their husband’s knowledge or approval. A good book on this analysis is Wheels of Change: How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom by Susan Macey.

I first visited Saudi Arabia in January of 2009 as part of a collaborative project between the University of California at Berkeley and the newly formed King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). My contribution focused on research on sustainability and gender equity through design innovations as part of our CARES (Community Assessment of Renewable Energy and Sustainability) project. In order include gender equity considerations in this project, I also partnered with a top quality private women’s college Dar Al-Hekma, nearby in Jeddah. We named our project “Estidama”, the Arabic word for sustainability.

During my January 2009 visit, I gave talks at Dar Al-Hekma (photos above) and visited the construction of buildings at KAUST. My daugher joined me at Dar Al-Hekma, but my husband and son could only visit after 4:00 pm when the students left for home. I donned an Egyptian-style abaya as it allowed more freedom with a full opening in the front. Non-Muslim women do not have to wear the hijab, but I carried a scarf with me just in case. Although I was told that the abaya was not required if I dressed modestly, the hotel I was in specifically said it was required and the one day I ventured out without it I felt daggers in my back. When wearing the abaya, for the most part, I was treated with dignity and with utmost hospitality.  While I was at DAH and KAUST, my family went snorking in the Red Sea and visited the camel and falcon market (photos below).

One question I did not get answered was whether women could ride camels alone. I was told that oil-rich Saudis do not really ride camels anymore, except for sport. Although when riding down the highway in Jeddah (with a personal guide), we stopped to ask a Sudanese camel herder to milk a camel and bring us fresh milk (photos below). I was told that women in remote parts of Saudi Arabia do drive out of necessity. The problem appears to be the major cities with active religious police.

I love this story as it illustrates how technology (mobility and social media) can be a vehicle of social change (pun intended). I am interested in how far this civil disobedience goes if women are not give more freedom in general. I found the women of Saudi Arabia to be smart and motivated to make the world a better place. Will they still need to bring a male guardian with them as a passenger if they can drive? Will they be safe driving alone? Will they have a wider range of jobs they can drive to?

Today in History – June 16, 1963,  Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space aboard the Soviet Union’s Vostok 6. At the time, Tereshkova had completed three days in space, more than the flight time of all the American astronauts put together.

Tereshkova’s story has many gendered aspects. The Soviets seem to have used the female cosmonauts as a publicity stunt. Tereshkova was one of five women picked for this program; the least qualified in regards to higher education. Premier Khrushchev made the final crew selection, picking Tereshkova as she embodied the qualities expected of the New Soviet Woman – a reliable communist, a factory worker, and came from a humble background. He called her a “good girl”. In spite of technical issues during the flight, she proved to be quite able.

Tereshkova has received a number of medals and distinctions, including two Orders of Lenin; recognition as a Hero of the Soviet Union; the United Nation Gold Medal of Peace; the Simba International Women’s Movement Award; and the Joliot-Curie Gold Medal. In 2000, she was named “Greatest Woman Achiever of the Century” award by the International Women of the Year Association.

For more information, see the Engineering Pathway’s resources on Valentina Tereshkova and space exploration. For related educational resources, visit the Aerospace Engineering Education or Engineering Diversity disciplinary communities.

Today in History – June 12, 1979 – Gossamer Albatross crosses the English Channel. The Gossamer Albatross aircraft was designed by Jack MacCready to fly long distances with a human pedaling pilot as the only source of power.  The historic June 12, 1979 flight across the English Channel was piloted by Bryan Allen, covering a distance of 22.25 statute miles (35.6 km) in 2 hours and 49 minutes.

A century earlier, John J. Montgomery makes first controlled “heavier than air” glider flight at Wheeler Hill, California. He sails a distance of 603 feet at an altitude of about fifteen feet. He continued to perfect the design by making and testing modifications. In 1894, he published a summary of this work in Octave Chanute’s “Progress in Flying”; a book that the Wright Brothers are reported to have read. Montgomery was the first person to use the term “aeroplane” and was granted the first “aeroplane” patent in 1906. Montgomery died  testing one of his powered designs for Vicor Loughead (later Lockheed) in 1911. Norman Ward reconstructed the 1883 Montgomery Glider shown in the photograph above right.

In 1977, Paul MacCready’s Gossamer Condor was the first human powered flight around a figure eight. MacCready and his team won the $50,000 Kremer Prize and captured the world’s attention. Bryan Allen maintained a head-height during the 7 1/2 minute figure eight flight.

British millionaire Henry Kremer and the Royal Aeronautical Society offered the Kremer Prize to the “designer who could create a human-powered flying machine”. After 18 years of no winners,  MacCready’s Gossamer Condor made history in 1977 when it became the first human-powered vehicle to achieve a sustained flight, performing a complex maneuver.

The Gossamer Condor is now on display at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. MacCready went on to win a number of other flight firsts and also developed the solar-powered Sunraycer that competed in a race across Australia. His 1990 electric car, built in collaboration with General Motors, resulted in the Impact electric car that could accelerate from zero to 60 mph in eight seconds.

For more information, see the Engineering Pathway’s resources on John Montgomery, Paul MacCready, Gossamer Condor and gliders. Or view curricular resources at the Aerospace Engineering Education Community site.

Today in History – June 9, 1931 – Dr. Robert Hutchings Goddard patents a rocket-powered airplane.

Goddard is perhaps best known for the first liquid-fueled rocket,  a very small contraption connected to tanks with gasoline and liquid oxygen, and sitting atop a frame 10 feet tall. It screeched into the air for a few seconds, reaching an altitude of about 40 feet and crashing down about 200 feet from its launch site. Goddard wrote in his diary that the rocket “looked magical as it rose.”

In a liquid rocket, stored fuel and stored oxidizer are pumped into a combustion chamber where they are mixed and burned. The combustion produces great amounts of high-pressure exhaust gas, which produces thrust. Today’s missiles and spacecraft are launched on liquid-propelled rockets based on Goddard’s groundbreaking experiments. In memory of Goddard’s work, a major space science laboratory, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, was established on May 1, 1959.

Also on this date in 1966, NASA launched Gemini VIII, the 12th manned American space flight and first space docking with the Agena Target Vehicle. Neil Armstrong, who was a recent test pilot assigned to the X-15 rocket airplane before becoming an astronaut in 1962, made his first space flight in 1966 on Gemini VIII with David R. Scott. The two men performed the first successful docking of two vehicles in space — the Gemini VIII and an uninhabited Agena rocket. This was the world’s first orbital docking. David Scott was to spend two hours outside of the spacecraft, but subsequent events canceled the planned space-walk. A thruster malfunction caused the Gemini VIII capsule, still docked to the Agena, to roll continuously. The crew undocked from the Agena while rotating at a rate of 60 RPM. The only way to stop the motion was to use the capsule’s reentry control thrusters, which meant that Armstrong and Scott had to cut short their mission and make an emergency return to Earth 10 hours after launch.

For more information, see the Engineering Pathway‘s resources on Goddard, rockets and aerospace engineering. For curricular resources, visit the Aerospace Engineering Education community site.

Today in History – June 8, 1940 – The discovery of element 93, neptunium (symbol Np), a decay product of uranium-239, was announced by Edwin M. McMillan and Philip H. Abelson working at the University of California at Berkeley. Neptunium was named after the planet Neptune and, at the time, was the first element heavier than uranium. Such elements with stable isotopes are called transuranium elements. McMillan was awarded a share of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1951 for the discovery of Neptunium. McMillan was a member of the Radiation Laboratory under Professor E.O. Lawrence with research on nuclear reactions and their products, and the design and construction of cyclotrons and other equipment. He succeeded Lawrence as director of what is now the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 1958. McMillan was also a member of the Faculty in the Department of Physics at Berkely from 1935 till his retirement in 1974. Today, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), named after Ernest Lawrence, has taken the lead in a diverse range of projects in particle physics and energy, such as environmental energy technologies.

See the Engineering Pathway’s educational resources on radiactive elements, particle physics and the cyclotron or visit the Nuclear Engineering Education or the Chemical Engineering Education community sites for more information.