Paving the Way for Future Generations of Women in STEM

On Women’s Equality Day, NASA celebrates the women who are breaking barriers and paving the way for future generations.

In this image, Dr. Nancy Grace Roman (1925-2018), NASA's first Chief of Astronomy and "the Mother of Hubble," visits the Space Telescope Operations Control Center at the Goddard Space Flight Center on March 31, 2017, and meets with some women from the Hubble Space Telescope project. Left to right: Beverly Serrano, Morgan Van Arsdall, Nancy Grace Roman, Olivia Lupie, Padi Boyd, and Erin Kisliuk.

The Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope, a mission concept to answer vital questions in both exoplanet detection and dark energy research, was renamed the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope in her honor.

Women's Equality Day is celebrated on Aug. 26 each year and commemorates the passage of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the constitutional right to vote in the United States in 1920. In a joint resolution of Congress in 1973, Aug. 26 was officially designated as Women's Equality Day.