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Reviewed by:
  • American Women and Flight since 1940
  • Susan Ware (bio)
American Women and Flight since 1940. By Deborah G. Douglas. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2004. Pp. xi+359. $29.95.

Deborah Douglas's welcome and stimulating overview of women and aviation since 1940 can be summed up in two words: gender matters. "The airplane may not be able to distinguish the sex of a pilot (or engineer, air traffic controller, flight attendant, or assembler)," she points out, "but human beings can and do" (p. 256). That insight provides important clues as to why so many of women's contributions to aviation history have been underestimated or rendered invisible. And yet this book, which is a revised and expanded version of the 1991 volume that Douglas wrote for the influential Smithsonian series on United States women in aviation, is not just about obstacles and barriers; it is just as much about the vital roles women have played in aviation, and it has implications that are broader than just women's history. "Originally framed as a study about women," Douglas writes, "I came to recognize how much it had to say about men in aviation as well" (p. 4).

The book is divided into two sections: "Can Women Fly?" surveys women's experiences in World War II; "Should Women Fly?" describes developments through the early twenty-first century. Women's military roles [End Page 228] during World War II have been researched by a variety of scholars and Douglas effectively synthesizes this material with a focus on the transformative nature of the war experience once women had shown that they could fly. But that was only part of the battle, as the second half of the book indicates. Given prevailing stereotypes and prejudices, women still had difficulty finding opportunities on a par with men. One of the strengths of Douglas's book is her broad definition of flight and aviation, which comprises general aviation and commercial airlines, civilian and military pilots, flight attendants, aerospace engineers, and assembly-line workers (although the story of women in the space program is mentioned only in passing).

Since the 1970s women's roles in aviation have expanded, paralleling developments in American society more generally. Douglas is especially good at charting the story of women's changing roles in the modern military, culminating in the repeal of the combat exclusion in the wake of the Gulf War. Besides marking a significant turning point in the definition of American citizenship by removing all limits to women's opportunities for serving their country, the success of women in the military in turn helped all women in aviation, especially commercial pilots.

While Douglas's narrative by necessity highlights larger themes and historical events, individual women's stories enliven almost every page. Women who gravitate toward flight (pioneer aviator Bobbi Trout once called them "just plane crazy" [p. 9]) must be spunky and independent—they just won't take "no" for an answer. The infectious camaraderie that binds women (and men) together with a passion for flight comes through clearly in every chapter. Douglas also does a commendable job of documenting the special problems faced by African American women and other women of color in challenging both gender and racial barriers. All these themes are extensively illustrated with a wonderful range of photographs that enrich the narrative. (The picture of Ann Johnson and Yvonne Pateman, both of the U.S. Air Force, looking totally at home in their flight gear at the Tan Son Nhut base in Vietnam in 1967 is worth the price of the book.) Douglas also includes statistical appendixes and an excellent bibliography.

The story of women and flight continues to evolve so rapidly that Douglas should probably plan on an update of this book every few years. In the meantime, readers interested in aviation and the history of technology, women's history, and postwar American social and cultural history will be more than satisfied with the fine job she has done with the story so far.

Susan Ware

Dr. Ware is the editor of the biographical dictionary Notable American Women at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, and the author of Still Missing...

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