Right Stuff, Wrong Sex

About this book

"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 their country's suspicion of - and hostility to - such aspirations. Through archival research and interviews with participants, Weitekamp traces the rise and fall of the Woman in Space program within the context of Cold War American history: the thriving women's aviation culture of the 1950s, Jerrie Cobb's efforts to gain public and political support, the mysteriously abrupt cancellation of the testing program, and the 1962 congressional hearings that effectively denied women a role in America's space program for the next three decades. Weitekamp's study shred 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."--Jacket.