10 Times Star Trek: Voyager Went Woke

2. Women in Engineering

Understandably, a lot of kudos is given to Janeway's representation of women in Voyager. But there was also another very important female role model in the crew.

In The Next Generation, we had a brief appearance from Chief Engineer MacDougal, but B'Elanna Torres was the first permanent female chief engineer of Star Trek. And for a franchise that had often put women into communication, specialist or care-giving roles, it really was a big deal to see a woman rolling up her sleeves and fixing the warp core.

Most importantly, she wasn't just an engineer. She was the chief. After earning the spot over internal candidate Joe Carey, Engineering became her domain. Not only was she inevitably expected to work miracles and pull off a six-hour job in two, but she was also giving orders, submitting reports and running a department.

And having a woman be the go-to technical expert in the room was powerful, because in the real world, women only made up about 12% of engineers in the US around the time Voyager aired.

Shocked? You have every right to be, but it gets worse, because as of 2024, that had only gone up to about 16%. We must do better, and every time we see a woman in engineering and STEM, it normalises it just that little bit more. Even if it is just on our favourite show, because we know these role models make a difference.

Only recently, Cassidy Parrish, an engineering major, created an innovative robotic glove to help her father's hand pain. And guess who she cited as an inspiration? You guessed it, B'Elanna Torres:

It was cool to see not only someone who was powerful and an engineer but also a woman in STEM.