7 December, 1999

McMurdo Station, Ross Island, Antarctica

Tuesday

"Women will not be allowed in the Antarctic until we can provide one woman for every man."

Rear Admiral George Dufek, USN 1957

Christmas music! Today, Marc Pomeroy, the fellow who shares this lab with me, played Christmas music on his computer! Now I am really getting into the Christmas spirit! The music was the first little bit of the holidays in evidence here!

The winds picked up a bit today, but we still didn't get the gale force winds that were predicted. I spent the day in the lab working at the gas chromatograph. Bess left a cute message for my arrival in the lab today. Artfully attached to the GC was a piece of paper cut to look like someone saying something in a cartoon strip. On the piece of paper was written "Good morning Sharon! The GC is your friend!" Because the GC has spoken, I have chosen to speak to it. Now we get along just fine and all of my data has been beautiful! I believe that the revised procedure that we are using is also of some help! I worked on the GC until supper at 7 p.m. and then wrote journals and loaded some of my photos.

One of my cameras is not working properly (fix the GC and something else breaks!). Rob (the Polar Profile from yesterday) offered to take a look at it, so after all the work was completed, about 10 p.m., Rob tried to fix the camera. He cleaned it thoroughly and still, it continues to shoot at a speed of about 1 second regardless of what we set the camera. Nothing worked! I do have a back-up camera (a good thing, too) so I can continue to take shots with print film. The digital camera works fine as well.

ANSWER TO YESTERDAY'S QUESTION: The first woman on Antarctica was Caroline Mikkelsen, a Norwegian accompanying her whaling captain husband in 1935. In 1947, the first women overwintered in Antarctica. They were Edith Ronne and Jennie Darlington, again accompanying their husbands. The arrival of women at the South Pole did not occur until 1957 when a commercial PanAm flight landed at the Pole. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the arrival of the first woman officially welcomed to a United States Antarctic Research facility. It wasn't until 1969 that the United States Antarctic Program permitted women to parcticipate in their program. Dr. Rita Mathews, a biologist at McMurdo in 1978 writes, "The Antarctic had always been a men's club...We were still treated as strange animals - but the opinions about exactly how we should be handled differed as much as the individual men on the station. There were 650 men on base, and their treatment of the 42 women ranged from abject deference to out-and-out solicitation, from respect to contempt." The situation at McMurdo has changed dramatically since 1978. Women are still in the minority, but their numbers are increasing. Today, approximately 40% of the people at McMurdo are women.

TODAY'S QUESTION: Why is it necessary to always wear sunscreen in Antarctica?

Sharon

JUST FOR KIDS!!!!!

Today, for the first time this year, I heard Christmas music! This really put me in a Christmas spirit! There is a Christmas tree at the chapel. Christmas is only 18 days away!

I continued to work at the gas chromatograph (GC) today. Bess left a cute message for me in the lab today. Attached to the GC was a piece of paper cut to look like someone saying something in a cartoon strip. On the piece of paper was written "Good morning Sharon! The GC is your friend!" The GC has been behaving now that we changed the way we operate it! It seems to be happy!

One of my cameras is broken. My friend Rob tried to fix it, but it still doesn't work. I have another camera so I can continue to take pictures!

ANSWER TO YESTERDAY'S QUESTION: Thirty years ago, in 1969, women were first allowed to live at a United States research facility in Antarctica! There were only a few women and many men. Today, at McMurdo Station, almost half of the people here are women!

TODAY'S QUESTION: Why is it necessary to always wear sunscreen in Antarctica?

Sharon