Mars should be boring: gender and emotions in a space analog environment

The dissertation presents my examination of how mixed-gender teams live and work together in environments that resemble habitats on space or on other planets (space analogs). I use primary and secondary data from the Mars Desert Research Station to better understand gender inequality, differences in leadership, and emotions in such places.

In Chapter 1, I use ethnographic data from a two-week Mars simulation at the MDRS and focus on gender and emotion management. The results outline how gender becomes embedded in crew interactions and how crew members manage their emotions in to adhere to unwritten feeling rules of professionalism and affective neutrality.

In Chapter 2, we look at participation in simulated Mars walks in 30 randomly selected crews. We use data from crew reports and show that female crew members were on average participating in 6 percent less Mars walks than their male peers, accounting for their crew roles and other factors.

In Chapter 3, I look at potential leadership differences between female and male Commanders. I use Commander Reports from 2009-2016 MDRS simulations. Results show that both male and female Commanders are agentic, but female commanders are more communal and tend to use more positive tone in their reports.

Overall, this research contributes to the sociological understanding of gender and emotions in space analog environments.