Clipped Wings: The Rise and Fall of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) of World War II

by Molly Merryman

Overview

Revives the overlooked stories of pioneering women aviators, who are also featured in the forthcoming documentary film Coming Home: Fight for a Legacy


During World War II, all branches of the military had women's auxiliaries. Only the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) program, however, was made up entirely of women who undertook dangerous missions more commonly associated with and desired by men.

Within military hierarchies, the World War II pilot was perceived as the most dashing and desirable of servicemen. "Flyboys" were the daring elite of the United States military. More than the WACs (Army), WAVES (Navy), SPARS (Coast Guard), or Women Marines, the WASPs directly challenged these assumptions of male supremacy in wartime culture. WASPs flew the fastest fighter planes and heaviest bombers; they test-piloted experimental models and worked in the development of weapons systems. Yet the WASPs were the only women's auxiliary within the armed services of World War II that was not militarized.

In Clipped Wings, Molly Merryman draws upon military documents—many of which weren’t declassified until the 1990s—congressional records, and interviews with the women who served as WASPs during World War II to trace the history of the over one thousand pilots who served their country as the first women to fly military planes. She examines the social pressures that culminated in their disbandment in 1944—even though a wartime need for their services still existed—and documents their struggles and eventual success, in 1977, to gain military status and receive veterans’ benefits.

In the preface to this reissued edition, Merryman reflects on the changes in women’s aviation in the past twenty years, as NASA’s new Artemis program promises to land the first female astronaut on the moon and African American and lesbian women are among the newest pilot recruits. Updating the story of the WASPs, Merryman reveals that even in the past few years there have been more battles for them to fight and more national recognition for them to receive. At its heart, the story of the Women Airforce Service Pilots is not about war or planes; it is a story about persistence and extraordinary achievement. These accomplished women pilots did more than break the barriers of flight; they established a model for equality.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781479805785
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	09/15/2020
Pages:	280
Sales rank:	679,875
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Molly Merryman is the founding director of Kent State University’s Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality and an associate professor of Sociology. She is also a documentary filmmaker and the Historic Research Producer for the WASP documentary Coming Home (2020). Merryman is the research director for Queer Britain, the UK's national LGBTQ+ Museum.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations viii

Acknowledgments ix

List of Abbreviations xi

Preface to the NYU Classics Edition xiii

1 Introduction 1

2 The Development of the Women Airforce Service Pilots: From Guarded Experiment to Valuable Support Role 6

3 Becoming Soldiers: Tracing WASP Expansion and Plans for Militarization 30

4 From Praise to Rancor: Media Opinion Changes as Men Return from Battle 44

5 No Allies for the WASPs: Congress Responds to Male Public Interest Groups 75

6 They'll Be Home for Christmas: The WASP Program Disbands 102

7 On a Different Battlefield: The WASP Fight for Militarization after the War 131

8 Recognizing the Gendered Warrior: History and Theory Intersect with the Fate of the WASPs 157

9 Coda 182

Notes 185

Bibliography 209

Index 227

About the Author 239

Editorial Reviews

"Merryman has assembled a formidable study of these women pilots using recently declassified government documents, as well as interviews with surviving WASP personnel."

Feminist Collections

"An excellent study . . . its grounding in feminist history and methodology are timely and welcome."

American Historical Review

"Clipped Wings lets us peer into the political cockpit of militarized gender construction. I've learned a lot from this fine book."

author of Does Khaki Still Become You? Cynthia Enloe

"Merryman's work has been hailed as a fresh, astute, analysis of the WASP program. The book is well written and draws on a variety of primary source material including, military documents, interviews with former WASPs, newspapers and articles and Jacqueline Cochran's private papers."

Minerva

"Clipped Wings lets us peer into the political cockpit of militarized gender construction. I've learned a lot from this fine book."

Cynthia Enloe