Right Stuff, Wrong Sex - America''s First Women in Space Program

In Right Stuff, Wrong Sex, Margaret Weitekamp shows how the Woman in Space program-conceived by Dr. William Randolph Lovelace and funded by world-famous pilot and businesswoman Jacqueline Cochran-challenged prevailing attitudes about women's roles and capabilities. In examining the experiences of the Fellow Lady Astronaut Trainees (as the candidates called themselves), this book documents the achievements and frustrated hopes of a remarkable group of women whose desire to serve their country fell victim to hostility toward such aspirations. Drawing from archival research and interviews with participants, Weitekamp traces the rise and fall of the Woman in Space program within the context of the cold war and the thriving women's aviation culture of the 1950s. Weitekamp's study sheds light on a little-known but compelling chapter in the history of the U.S. space program and the rise of the women's movement in America.

About the author

Margaret A. Weitekamp is curator in the Division of Space History at the National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C.

Summary

space program and the rise of the women's movement in America.

Product details

• Authors: Margaret A Weitekamp, Margaret A. Weitekamp, Margaret A. (Curator Weitekamp
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 03.02.2006
• EAN: 9780801883941
• ISBN: 978-0-8018-8394-1
• No. of pages: 256
• Dimensions: 152 mm x 229 mm x 19 mm
• Series: Gender Relations in the Americ; Gender Relations in the American Experience; Gender Relations in the Americ
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature > Letters, diaries; Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Natural sciences (general); Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Sociological theories