Lady Daredevils: American Women and Early Aviation (Women, Gender, and Sexuality in American History) - Softcover

Barbara Ganson

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0252089316 ISBN 13: 9780252089312

Publisher: University of Illinois Press, 2026

Synopsis

Though often restricted as aviators, women helped build a stable aircraft industry that became the envy of the world. Barbara Ganson delves into the lives of the women whose work as test pilots, flight school owner-operators, airport managers, and in other roles impacted and reflected larger trends in society.

Women aviators challenged social norms that considered them inept with machinery and incapable of handling early flight's very real dangers. Ganson follows how the New Woman ethos of freedom of movement and career inspired engagement with aviation. Despite resistance, women pushed limits by setting records for speed, altitude, distance, and endurance. The fashions of airwomen, meanwhile, reflected changing attitudes of women toward traditional roles and the pursuit of their career aspirations.

Informed by interviews and rare archival information, Lady Daredevils tells the stories of the pioneering women of early aviation history and reveals their dynamic interactions with social and technological change.

About this title

About the Author

Barbara Ganson is a professor of history at Florida Atlantic University. She is the author of The Texas Takes Wing: A Century of Flight in the Lone Star State.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0252089316
• ISBN 13: 9780252089312
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304