Tales & Trails of a Traveling Wiseguy

Some people have questioned whether the writers took modern (2019-era) liberties by making the fictional character Dr. Khomyuk a woman. In 1986 there were few women with STEM PhDs and even fewer in prominent STEM roles such as a major university department chair. But that's an interesting thing about the USSR in the late 1970s through 1980s. Women in STEM were uncommon in the West at the time. They were more common in the USSR. The Soviet Union in that era made it a point of pride that not only had they built a strong cadre of STEM PhDs but that they had educated and promoted way more women in STEM than the West. That was one of many points they used in propaganda to show the West— and their own people— that the Soviet socio-political and economic system was superior to capitalism.