In this next installment of our series on depictions of women in STEM, we examine Kaywinnet Lee (Kaylee) Frye of the short-lived TV show Firefly, portrayed by Jewel Staite.

Underneath Kaylee’s sweet exterior is an extraordinary engineer with a penchant for machines and mechanics. As the mechanic of the ship, Serenity, in the space western drama that aired from September to December 2002, Kaylee had a deep love for the ship that she kept running. Despite her lack of formal training, she managed to steal the previous mechanic’s job by fixing the ship when he said there was no hope for it. She almost embodied the ship as if it were a living character on the show, as she would express hurt if the ship’s capabilities was insulted, and if her mechanical skills did fail her on the rare occasion, she would slip into a deep sadness. She is almost seen as having an intuitive knowledge of mechanics, skills that she was “born with.” This could be seen as problematic, as “Radengineer” points out on her blog: “It buys into the idea that people are born with mechanical ability – an idea that people have been using to explain why women just aren’t interested in engineering. […] I don’t think it’s useful to characterize Kaylee as having been born with this knowledge because it’s not possible and it contributes to women and minorities feeling ‘imposter syndrome’ when something doesn’t naturally come to them.”

She also is torn between the feelings she develops for Simon Tam (a doctor and fugitive passenger aboard the ship) and her obligations as a crew member on Serenity. Many women forgo having careers in STEM to achieve a better work-life balance, and many have experienced colleagues suggesting they should work fewer hours after having children and generally feeling a need to compete with male colleagues who had stay-at-home wives.

While her blossoming relationship with Simon does not directly affect her work on the ship, she is teased by other members of the crew. In particular, the character Jayne makes lewd comments about her attraction to Simon. Women in STEM fields experience sexual harassment and criticism of their relationship and sexual choices on an ongoing basis, and this fact is not absent in Firefly.

As for Jewel Staite, she has experience portraying awesome women in STEM. After her stint on Firefly, she went on to play Dr. Jennifer Keller in the sci-fi series Stargate Atlantis. In this series, Dr. Keller replaces her predecessor, Dr. Carson Beckett, as chief medical officer for the entire Atlantis expedition. Dr. Keller is able to overcome many strange medical situations while in the Pegasus galaxy, which is full of all sorts of treacherous foes and technology. She develops a personal relationship with a fellow member of the expedition but, unlike Kaylee on Firefly, no one ever uses this fact to diminish her expertise or capability.

And for a longer walk down memory lane, Jewel Staite took part in a Canadian sci-fi series called Space Cases that aired from 1996-1997. She portrayed a ship's engineer from Titan (Saturn's moon) with rainbow-coloured hair who once solved a seemingly complicated predicament after she lost her voice from using her superpower, super sonic screaming, too much. (See this scene from the hilariously 1990s series here.)

When asked who would win in a fight between Kaylee and Catlina in a reddit.com AMA (Ask Me Anything), Jewel replied: "Kaylee. Catalina's biggest weapon is her wit, and that's not going to take her too far. Plus Kaylee's friends fight dirty." Fair enough, but couldn't they also use their STEM brilliance that so far has gotten them out of constant kerfluffles?