Gender and the Race for Space: Masculinity and the American Astronaut, 1957-1983
The American astronaut image was informed by early Cold War ideals of masculinity that helped mold a distinctly American (anti-communist) masculinity, which appeared—on the surface anyway—to resolve not only an American “crisis of masculinity” but helped win the Cold War on an ideological and popular level. This American image focused on strict gender binaries of man as the protector, controlling technology and containing communism, while woman was the passive actor with spaceflight technology—left behind in the home waiting for the return of the astronaut husband. Allowing women to fly into space would have represented a lack of individual control with spaceflight technology. 

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Gender and the Race for Space: Masculinity and the American Astronaut, 1957-1983
The American astronaut image was informed by early Cold War ideals of masculinity that helped mold a distinctly American (anti-communist) masculinity, which appeared—on the surface anyway—to resolve not only an American “crisis of masculinity” but helped win the Cold War on an ideological and popular level. This American image focused on strict gender binaries of man as the protector, controlling technology and containing communism, while woman was the passive actor with spaceflight technology—left behind in the home waiting for the return of the astronaut husband. Allowing women to fly into space would have represented a lack of individual control with spaceflight technology. 

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Gender and the Race for Space: Masculinity and the American Astronaut, 1957-1983

Gender and the Race for Space: Masculinity and the American Astronaut, 1957-1983

by Erinn McComb
Gender and the Race for Space: Masculinity and the American Astronaut, 1957-1983

Gender and the Race for Space: Masculinity and the American Astronaut, 1957-1983

by Erinn McComb

Hardcover

$110.00 
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Overview

The American astronaut image was informed by early Cold War ideals of masculinity that helped mold a distinctly American (anti-communist) masculinity, which appeared—on the surface anyway—to resolve not only an American “crisis of masculinity” but helped win the Cold War on an ideological and popular level. This American image focused on strict gender binaries of man as the protector, controlling technology and containing communism, while woman was the passive actor with spaceflight technology—left behind in the home waiting for the return of the astronaut husband. Allowing women to fly into space would have represented a lack of individual control with spaceflight technology. 


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781839987175
Publisher: Anthem Press
Publication date: 06/10/2025
Series: Anthem Intercultural Transfer Studies
Pages: 304
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.81(d)

About the Author

Erinn McComb, PhD, is Associate Professor of History at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, Texas. She researches the intersection of gender with foreign policy, science, and technology.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments; Introduction: Who Can Fly? Gender and the American Astronaut; 1-Early Cold War Gender Roles in the Public and Private Discourse; 2-Light This Candle: Project Mercury and Cold War Masculinity; 3-The First Lady Astronaut Trainees (FLATs); 4-Refreshingly Human and Winning: Pilot Control and Project Gemini; 5-It’s Hip to Be Square: Democratic Manhood and the Apollo Program; 6-What Made It Possible for Sally to Ride?: The Shuttle’s Domestication and Democratization of Spaceflight; Conclusion: To Infinity and Beyond; Bibliography; Index

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