Did married women serve in TOS era Starfleet?

[Jedi_Master]

I just finished rewatching "Who Mourns for Adonias?" and a particular comment caught my attention. During the opening scene Bones and Kirk are discussing Lt. Palamas and Bones states 'someday she will find the right man and leave the service ' which causes Kirk to lament how he will 'lose an officer'.
So I have two questions:

First, was there ever a female Starfleet officer on a TOS episode that was married?

Second, does that mean that women who married were required to leave Starfleet during the TOS era? (That's an in universe question)

 

[Melakon]

It doesn't seem to be suggested that there's any such regulation with the wedding in "Balance of Terror". It might just be an example of '60s thinking-- women would sometimes leave their jobs after marriage to start a family.

 

[Shaw]

First, was there ever a female Starfleet officer on a TOS episode that was married?

A better second question would be was there ever a male Starfleet officer on a TOS episode that was married?

 

[Jedi_Master]

It doesn't seem to be suggested that there's any such regulation with the wedding in "Balance of Terror". It might just be an example of '60s thinking-- women would sometimes leave their jobs after marriage to start a family.

Tomlinson dies in that episode, if I remember correctly, and his fiance is left alone.

That was my take as well, Mel I just wondered if anyone could recall a married female officer, whose presence would prove that line was a throw away based on antiquated thinking.

 

[Melakon]

Maybe in the 23rd century, Starfleet is like a space spa for singles.

 

[Greg Cox]

I never thought it was a matter of Starfleet policy. Just an old-fashioned attitude that crept into the script for "Adonais."

One cringes today, but back in 1960s it was more or less expected that women would quit work once they settled down and got married.

 

[tafkats]

It doesn't seem to be suggested that there's any such regulation with the wedding in "Balance of Terror". It might just be an example of '60s thinking-- women would sometimes leave their jobs after marriage to start a family.

Tomlinson dies in that episode, if I remember correctly, and his fiance is left alone.

That was my take as well, Mel I just wondered if anyone could recall a married female officer, whose presence would prove that line was a throw away based on antiquated thinking.

At the moment, the only married officer of either gender I can think of is Ben Finney.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I never thought it was a matter of Starfleet policy. Just an old-fashioned attitude that crept into the script for "Adonais."

One cringes today, but back in 1960s it was more or less expected that women would quit work once they settled down and got married.

I think that the dialog here might have been intended make a connection with the audience, in order to heighten the sense of realism by portraying the people in Star Trek as present-day people of the times.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

Families weren't permitted on Starfleet ships at the time, so if she did "meet a nice man" and choose to have children she would have to do so on a station or planet somewhere.

 

[GSchnitzer]

For what it's worth, the book The Making of Star Trek has the following comment:

"Birth control would be mandatory for unmarried females, voluntary for married females. In keeping with the advanced state of the medical arts, as practiced aboard the Enterprise, a single monthly injection would be administered. A woman found to be pregnant would be given her choice of a medical discharge or rotation to a shore base for the remainder of her pregnancy."

So evidently it was contemplated that married females could be serving on starships, could become pregnant, and could be transferred to a shore base for the duration of their pregnancy.

 

[borgboy]

For what it's worth, the book The Making of Star Trek has the following comment:

"Birth control would be mandatory for unmarried females, voluntary for married females. In keeping with the advanced state of the medical arts, as practiced aboard the Enterprise, a single monthly injection would be administered. A woman found to be pregnant would be given her choice of a medical discharge or rotation to a shore base for the remainder of her pregnancy."

So evidently it was contemplated that married females could be serving on starships, could become pregnant, and could be transferred to a shore base for the duration of their pregnancy.

That's pretty awful that a single woman wouldn't be allowed to have a child, since she was on mandatory birth control. It also is pretty fascist to mandate birth control - even to gay and/or celibate women. I understand that in the 60s these issues wouldn't even have been considered.
Off the top of my head I can't think of any married couples serving in Starfleet in the novels, but there was a woman who got pregnant and chose to have the baby - abortion was an option, and the birth control failed due to the father being non human - in Kevin Ryan's excellent Errend of Fury trilogy.

 

[Christopher]

That's pretty awful that a single woman wouldn't be allowed to have a child, since she was on mandatory birth control. It also is pretty fascist to mandate birth control - even to gay and/or celibate women.

It's not talking about the general population, just about shipboard personnel. Military personnel aboard a ship are expected to be subject to restrictions that would seem "fascist" if applied to civilians, but it's their free choice to accept that greater degree of discipline by enrolling in the service. Since the ship can't support children, birth control would obviously be necessary for female crewmembers. The only alternative would be chastity, and enforcing that would be a hell of a lot more fascist. Presumably an officer who wanted to mother a child would be free to request a transfer to a ground posting.

Off the top of my head I can't think of any married couples serving in Starfleet in the novels

Which century? In the 24th, we've got Picard/Crusher, Riker/Troi, and Paris/Torres. In the 23rd, there's Robert and Sarah April, but I can't recall if the books that use them depict them as being married while they served together.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Miles O'Brien was married aboard the Ent-D in an episode of TNG, "Data's Day".

 

[Greg Cox]

I think that line in "Adonais" is just a stray 1960s artifact that's best forgotten and quietly slipped under the rug . . . .

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

At the moment, the only married officer of either gender I can think of is Ben Finney.

It's never stated onscreen that Finney is married. And, given his sorry state in this episode, it seems unlikely that he is. (Jamie's mother is never mentioned or referred to at all, IIRC.)

 

[borgboy]

That's pretty awful that a single woman wouldn't be allowed to have a child, since she was on mandatory birth control. It also is pretty fascist to mandate birth control - even to gay and/or celibate women.

It's not talking about the general population, just about shipboard personnel. Military personnel aboard a ship are expected to be subject to restrictions that would seem "fascist" if applied to civilians, but it's their free choice to accept that greater degree of discipline by enrolling in the service. Since the ship can't support children, birth control would obviously be necessary for female crewmembers. The only alternative would be chastity, and enforcing that would be a hell of a lot more fascist. Presumably an officer who wanted to mother a child would be free to request a transfer to a ground posting.

Off the top of my head I can't think of any married couples serving in Starfleet in the novels

Which century? In the 24th, we've got Picard/Crusher, Riker/Troi, and Paris/Torres. In the 23rd, there's Robert and Sarah April, but I can't recall if the books that use them depict them as being married while they served together.

I was referring to the OP's question of TOS era. Since you bring it up that does jog my memory, that the Aprils were married and serving together in the Final Frontier novel.

 

[Captain Clark Terrell]

From the novels, Atish Khatami was married to a civilian who lived on a Federation colony.

--Sran

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I think that line in "Adonais" is just a stray 1960s artifact that's best forgotten and quietly slipped under the rug . . . .

Oh, no doubt, and this was neither the first nor only time 1960s sexism was injected into TOS. The line in "The Cage" about Pike not being used to having a woman on the bridge comes to mind.

 

[tafkats]

At the moment, the only married officer of either gender I can think of is Ben Finney.

It's never stated onscreen that Finney is married. And, given his sorry state in this episode, it seems unlikely that he is. (Jamie's mother is never mentioned or referred to at all, IIRC.)

Hm ... Jame's mother is referred to, and in that mention Jame says that Ben wrote letters to "Mother and me," but you're right, it's never specified that he's married to her.

 

[Greg Cox]

I think that line in "Adonais" is just a stray 1960s artifact that's best forgotten and quietly slipped under the rug . . . .

Oh, no doubt, and this was neither the first nor only time 1960s sexism was injected into TOS. The line in "The Cage" about Pike not being used to having a woman on the bridge comes to mind.

Oh, yeah, that's cringe-inducing, too.

Most of the subsequent Pike novels and comic books have pretty much ignored that bit . . . for good reason!