Women’s History Month: Women in the Early Space Program (AFW Mar/Apr 2022)

by Liz Booker

This article was published in the March/April 2022 issue of Aviation for Women Magazine.

For Women’s History Month last March, I highlighted the women who flew for their countries in World War II with a series of Aviatrix Book Review Podcast interviews with authors whose work features: the Women’s Air Ferrying Squadron; the Women Airforce Service Pilots; the British Air Transport Auxiliary; the Russian Night Witches; and the women who flew for Hitler. This March, I’ll celebrate the women who tested for the early space program as the Aviatrix Book Club discusses Fighting for Space: The Historic Battle for Female Space Flight by Amy Shira Teitel. Amy is an historian with a passion for mid-twentieth-century history, and hosts a fantastic YouTube Channel, The Vintage Space, where she highlights the technology, politics, and innovation of the early space program.

Fighting for Space is a dual biography that zeroes in on the roles that Jaqueline Cochran and Jerrie Cobb played in this history. Several other books celebrate the thirteen women pilots who passed the rigorous initial astronaut tests in the early 1960’s:

The Mercury Thirteen: The True Story of Thirteen Women and the Dream of Space Flight by Martha Ackmann. Award-winning journalist and author Martha Ackmann, “tells the story of the dramatic events surrounding these thirteen remarkable women, all crackerjack pilots and patriots who sometimes sacrificed jobs and marriages for a chance to participate in America’s space race against the Soviet Union.”

Promised the Moon: The Untold Story of the First Women in the Space Race by Stephanie Nolan. Stephanie Nolan is a foreign correspondent reporting on war zones and natural disasters, and a narrative non-fiction author. Her book Promised the Moon “chronicles the dramatic story of the rise and fall of these pioneering female astronauts, patriots betrayed by men like John Glenn, who opposed women astronauts, and by someone from their own ranks. The first writer to track down the surviving Fellow Lady Astronaut Trainees (FLATS), Stephanie Nolen vividly brings this fascinating and timely tale to life.”

Right Stuff, Wrong Sex: America’s First Women in Space Program by Margaret A. Weitekamp. Dr. Margaret A. Weitekamp curates the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum’s social and cultural history of spaceflight collection. “In Right Stuff, Wrong Sex, she 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.”

For younger readers, ages 10-17:

Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream, by Tanya Lee Stone. Tanya Lee Stone is the author of over a dozen non-fiction books for children and teens. Almost Astronauts, “is the tale of thirteen women who proved they were not only as tough as the toughest man but also brave enough to challenge the government.”

Galaxy Girls: 50 Amazing Stories of Women in Space by Libby Jackson. Libby Jackson is a leading British Expert on human space flight. “Filled with beautiful full-color illustrations, a groundbreaking compendium honoring the amazing true stories of fifty inspirational women who helped fuel some of the greatest achievements in space exploration from the nineteenth century to today.”

Check out the Aviatrix Book Review [now Literary Aviatrix] website to find many more books for all ages featuring women in space, including memoirs and biographies about Wally Funk, Eileen Collins, Mae Jemison, Christina McAuliffe, Kathryn D. Sullivan, and more. Please join us in the Aviatrix Book Club to discuss Fighting for Space in March and find author interviews on the Aviatrix Book Review website and podcast.