>? The Russians have always been ahead of us in this regard. They had
>female fighter pilots as far back as the Second World War, and women
>fought very successfully as partisans in German-occupied Soviet
>territories. The Soviet Union sent a woman into space decades
>before we got around to it.

Yeah, but that's the Soviet Union, a country ideologically committed to total equality in all things, never mind how it really was. The Tsar's Russia was a very different animal, much more chauvinistic. Though I suppose with the Macross falling many things are possible, so it's a minor point.

--
Mr. Fnord