Communications Officer Uhura is an African, a citizen of the Bantu Nation of United Africa of the 23rd century. Since childhood she had been interested in communications and was already a highly proficient communications professional at eighteen years of age when her sense of adventure led her into the Space Service. She is a desirable and attractive young lady, and a highly able starship officer, considered by Captain Kirk fully as capable and reliable as any lieutenant aboard.
The Making of Star Trek by Stephen E. Whitfield and Gene Roddenberry, 1968
Uhura is torn between the idea of someday becoming a wife and mother, and a desire to remain in the service as a career officer. Her life at present is a battle between her female need for the pleasant routine of Earthbound home and family versus the personal challenge of starship life and continued new worlds to conquer.
A great example of Star Trek being both ahead of its time and a product of its time. Glad we didn’t actually get to see many stories around Uhura’s “female need for the pleasant routine of Earthbound home and family”.
