A01=Barbara Ganson
aircraft industry
airport managers
airwomen
altitude
Author_Barbara Ganson
aviators
Category=JBSF1
Category=NHK
Category=NHTB
Category=WGM
danger
distance
early flight
endurance
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
flight school owner-operators
forthcoming
freedom of movement
New Woman
sexism
speed
technology
test pilots
tradition
Product details
- ISBN 9780252049668
- Weight: 454g
- Dimensions: 156 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 29 Jul 2026
- Publisher: University of Illinois Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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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.
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.
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.
