Gender Composition and Crew Cohesion During Long-Duration Space Missionsthe potential to affect a number of variables related to how crews interact and per-
form, we will address how gender, specifically in the mixture of men and women,
influences the cohesion of the crew. Cohesion, defined here as the degree to which
individuals in a crew or on a team are committed to each other (interpersonal cohe-
sion) and to the goals of the team’s task (task cohesion), has received considerable
empirical attention. Although there is some disagreement over the specific rela-
tionship between cohesion and performance, the general consensus is that teams
possessing higher levels of cohesion function more effectively and exhibit better
performance than low-cohesion teams.
This chapter reviews findings from mixed-gender crews in spaceflight as well as
relevant analogs like aviation, Antarctic research bases, and other complex environ-
ments to highlight how gender composition moderates crew cohesion and, ultimately,
performance. The discussion also addresses challenges associated with interpersonal
relationships during LDSF and whether guidelines are needed to limit or prohibit
romantic relationships. We first describe what is known about mixed-gender teams in
space and similar settings and then later turn to the issue of team cohesion.
WOMEN AND MEN IN SPACE AND
ANALOGOUS SETTINGS
Even before Valentina Tereshkova’s 1963 flight aboard Vostok 6, women have
played an integral role in the history of human spaceflight. According to NASA’s
History Division, 53 different women have flown in space as of April 2010, includ-
ing Soviet/Russian cosmonauts, American astronauts, and citizens of other coun-
tries, with 47 of these women flying with NASA.^7 Even before the U.S. program
got off the ground, the Woman in Space program proved that women could endure
the rigors of astronaut selection. Thirteen female pilots passed the same physi-
cal examinations at the Lovelace Clinic in New Mexico used to screen and select
male pilots for the Mercury program in the late 1950s and early 1960s.^8 In space, it
- NASA History Division, “Women in Space,” NASA, available at http://history.nasa.gov/
women.html (accessed 7 June 2010). - NASA History Division, “Lovelace’s Woman in Space Program,” NASA, available at
http://history.nasa.gov/flats.html (accessed 7 June 2010).