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40 I-CONNECT007 I REAL TIME WITH... IPC APEX EXPO 2023 SHOW & TELL MAGAZINE Considering the thousands of galaxies in the Universe, this raises the question: "Are we alone?" While discussing the Artemis program, Calandrelli focused on the issue of women in space. Although women represent 57% of the U.S. workforce, they make up only 29% of STEM jobs, with an even smaller percentage in senior positions. Of the 600-plus people who have been into space, women represent only 12%—a problem made worse by male engineers, rocket scientists in particular, fail- ing to understand women's basic needs. Fur- thermore, 43% of women leave their full-time STEM jobs after having their first child, and the "average person" in the industry is seen as an "average man." What can be done to get more women into STEM? What is the cost of offering realistic parental leave? What is the cost of not offer- ing it? What is the real cost of losing these skilled women? Billions have been spent over the years to attract women into STEM fields, all to very little effect. Calandrelli shared an example of a woman in an aerospace company who, inspired by one of Calandrelli's Twitter threads, took the opportunity to ask her CEO why their compa- ny's three-week parental leave policy was so short. He replied that he had not been aware that a three-week policy wasn't competitive, and a short while later, the company sub- stantially increased the amount of leave time allotted by the policy. Companies through- out the industry followed suit—all because one woman spoke up. Was one voice influential? Calandrelli has a lot of followers, so she herself has a big microphone, as she describes her two million followers. While one voice can be powerful, she said, many voices calling for change are impossible to ignore. S&T