Chinese women in space Chinese women in space In 2012, China became the third nation to send women into space with its own space program, after the Soviet Union/Russia and the United States, 49 years after the first female cosmonaut, Valentina Tereshkova. Following the successful piloted flight of "Shenzhou 5" in October 2003, China announced plans to send a woman into space as well. Gu Xiulian, president of the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF), told a gathering that she proposed that women, too, should be trained for space missions after China's first piloted space trip. Initially, the criteria for women to be selected, included having
A Woman in Berlin A Woman in Berlin A Woman in Berlin () (1959/2003) is an anonymous memoir by a German woman, revealed in 2003 to be journalist Marta Hillers. It covers the weeks from 20 April to 22 June 1945, during the capture of Berlin and its occupation by the Red Army. The writer describes the widespread rapes by Soviet soldiers, including her own, and the women's pragmatic approach to survival, often taking Soviet officers for protection. When published in German in 1953, the book was either "ignored or reviled" in Germany. The author refused to have another edition published in her lifetime.