multibeautiful

Latina Roxann Dawson had a memorable role as the half-Klingon, half-human chief engineer B’Elanna Torres on Star Trek: Voyager. She has not stopped making her mark on media, however, since she turned her hand to directing during ST:V and discovered she had talent behind the lens as well as in front of it. She’s also co-authored several science fiction novels.



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Dr Chiaki Mukai is a cardiovascular surgeon and JAXA astronaut who has flown two shuttle missions. She became the first Japanese woman in space on board the Space Shuttle Columbia’s flight STS-65 in 1994, and is still active in manned spaceflight programmes.



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Kalpana Chawla became the first Indian-born woman in space in 1997 on her first mission aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia. She was an aerospace engineer, pilot, flight instructor and general technical wizard.

Kalpana Chawla died on 1 February 2003 along with her six crewmates when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated on re-entry.



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This week’s theme was inspired by my attendance at the Royal Aeronautical Society’s Women in Aviation & Aerospace conference last Friday. Inaugurating Female Astronauts week is Ellen Lauri Ochoa, an engineer and inventor who is now Deputy Director of the Johnson Space Centre. She became the first Hispanic woman in space on a Discovery shuttle mission in 1993 and she holds multiple patents for novel optical inspection systems.



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Andi Osho is a London-born Nigerian-British actor-turned-stand-up-comic. Her warm, engaging style and zeitgeist-tapping jokes have won her plaudits and a semi-regular guest spot on the popular BBC show Mock the Week.



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On Nigerian names (YouTube, 02:10)
At the Edinburgh Comedy Fest 2011 (YouTube, 05:49)

The last laureate of this week, Chilean poet, diplomat and feminist, Gabriela Mistral, was the first Latin American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1945. Born into poverty, she won recognition for her published poetry while working as a teacher’s aide. As she gained stature, her position in the Chilean education system became more influential and she was able to champion reforms to expand access to those not from the privileged classes. She traveled widely and guarded her personal life closely. She died of pancreatic cancer in 1957.

( Gabriela Mistral on beauty in art (translated into English) )



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And in breaking news, what a wonderful way to round off the week: The 2011 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to three women of colour. The winners are Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee of Liberia and Tawakul Karman of Yemen for 'their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work'. Live text-based coverage from the Guardian can be viewed here.