Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Kathryn Janeway
1. The "Janeway" Effect
Many people will be familiar with the concept of the “Scully Effect”, whereby the creation and portrayal of The X-Files’ FBI Special Agent Dana Scully has been attributed to the increase of many young women seeking careers within fields of science, engineering, medicine and law.
While Scully might have been the catalyst for this labelled phenomenon, Starfleet Captain Kathryn Janeway graced our screens during this same period in the mid-1990s and has also been identified, by many women in the space and science fields, as a major influence on their career paths.
Most notably, Janeway became the first Star Trek character to be “cosplayed” in actual space. In April 2015, Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti tweeted a photo from onboard the International Space Station, wearing a Voyager-era Star Trek uniform with the caption “There's coffee in that nebula' ... ehm, I mean... in that #Dragon.”
"There's coffee in that nebula"... ehm, I mean... in that #Dragon. pic.twitter.com/9MYrqIOXnI
— Samantha Cristoforetti (@AstroSamantha) April 17, 2015
The photo showed a Dragon space capsule outside the space station which contained the ISSpresso - the first space espresso machine - which Cristoforetti later installed and again posted about, this time with the caption “‘Coffee: the finest organic suspension ever devised.’ Fresh espresso in the new Zero-G cup! To boldly brew…”
The impact of Kathryn Janeway upon women in the STEM industry was so influential that Kate Mulgrew - despite the fact that she was an actress and not actually the captain of a starship - was invited to The White House in 1995 to give a speech to various women working in science.
In more recent politics, Captain Janeway was also cited as a major influential figure for US Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the youngest woman to serve in Congress - who stated in an interview with Stephen Colbert that:
"My dad felt it very important for me to watch [Star Trek Voyager] because he wanted me to see an example of a woman in leadership,"
The level of impact and influence of this character, 30 years later, is surely Captain Janeway's greatest legacy.