Document created: 20 July 06
Air & Space Power Journal Book Review - Spring 2007

American Women and Flight since 1940 by Deborah G. Douglas. University Press of Kentucky (http://www.kentuckypress.com), 663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008, 2003, 376 pages, $29.95 (softcover).

Anyone who needs instruction on the outstanding achievements of American women in the skies should read American Women and Flight since 1940. It is encyclopedic in its coverage, and no one doubts the expertise of the author—who does not hide her feminist viewpoint. Dr. Deborah G. Douglas has both the technical and literary qualifications to do this book, an updated version of an earlier work. Holding a PhD in history from the University of Pennsylvania, she has much service with the National Museum of Aviation and Space and currently serves as curator of the science and technology collections of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Museum.

The book sticks pretty close to the limits of its title. Well written and easy to read, it boasts documentation well beyond the norm and a bibliography hardly to be exceeded anytime soon—an excellent starting place for anyone doing research for studies on women in aviation. The story offers no surprises. We have long known that women can fly and fly well. Oldsters like me well remember the newspapers and newsreels on the story of Amelia Earhart and her loss in the Pacific—a perennial on television. Too, we have heard the tale about women in aviation in World War II many times, and the author provides an authoritative treatment here. Then came the long march against male prejudice (real and perceived) in both civilian and military aviation, overcome in the 1990s only with Congress’s decision to eliminate legislation against women in combat—and the military’s decisions to utilize them in that function. That was the last great barrier; the penultimate one, the barring of women from the service academies, disappeared in 1976—partly in response to growing pressures of the women’s movement. Their exclusion from combat proved a tougher obstacle, but thanks to the Tailhook Scandal of 1991 (at least in part), it too disappeared, so now precious few jobs in aviation remain closed to women.

Douglas declares, “I hope this volume will encourage readers to think more broadly about femininity and masculinity in American society” (p. 4). However, no one involved with the military side of aviation for the last two decades can really have been insulated from such thought, and perhaps we are nearing the point where we can declare peace in the gender wars. Maybe in military aviation, the time has come to think more broadly about our responsibility for national security and less on the superiority of fighter piloting to motherhood in our hierarchy of honors.

Dr. David R. Mets
Maxwell AFB, Alabama

Disclaimer

The conclusions and opinions expressed in this document are those of the author cultivated in the freedom of expression, academic environment of Air University. They do not reflect the official position of the U.S. Government, Department of Defense, the United States Air Force or the Air University.