To wit, Kowal put a lot of not only herself, but the other women in her life, into the Lady Astronauts. One of the things that I had realized in writing The Calculating Stars, she told me during Den of Geek and TorCons Books & Brunch panel (see panel highlights in video player), was that part of what was making it work was that I was putting in my own experiences of sexism, but shifting the context. She gifted The Calculating Stars protagonist Elma York with elements of her Southern upbringing and particular insecurities, but also saved some for Nicole.

I am relentlessly, if you will, ambitious, Kowal said of Nicoles defining trait, yet also acknowledged the timeless challenge presented to cis women: Having to constantly walk that line between being acceptably pretty but not too pretty; being forceful but not too forceful, because if you are, then youre a bitch. If I am as direct as one of my male colleagues, it reads totally different. She also drew inspiration from female role models in childhood: My mom was an arts administrator until she retired, so watching her do that dance was really, really informative. She did all of these fundraising things, and I would see her doing those; so that was really informative for Nicole.

Its not unlike how Ilana C. Myer approached the fantasy world for her Harp and Ring Sequence: Sure, she had the option to eradicate sexism from this secondary world that was already so different from our own in terms of magic and underworld creatures. But instead, she gave her female poets and ladies-in-waiting obstacles instantly recognizable to contemporary readers: barred from the same education as their male peers, dismissed for their supposed delicacy or valued only for their sexuality, actively sabotaged and rarely given the opportunity to find mentors or even peers like them.

Sometimes we may be trying to envision a better world, Myer wrote on Den of Geek. And sometimes we are searching for a way to bear the realities of this one.

Despite existing in an alternate past, Nicole nonetheless bears the realities of a woman of her time, much of which parallels our 1960s: A product of Swiss finishing school and some other, less orthodox schools of training, she can flatter her way through a room of dignitaries and sweet-talk her way into an investigation. Yet all that people see is a pretty, middle-aged woman in an evening gown and red lipstick, to be trotted out at appropriate times on the arm of her governor husbanda bauble in his presidential campaign, rather than his equal in strategy and power. While she holds the honor of being among the first class of Lady Astronauts, she is also dismissed by her superiors as old hat and not up to the demands of the next phase of the IACs program.

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Space Outside, Sexism Inside: Mary Robinette Kowals The Relentless Moon - Den of Geek