Gender and the Race for Space

Author: Erinn McComb

c 1945 to c 2000 (Post-war period) | Postwar 20th century history, from c 1945 to c 2000 | Social & cultural history | The Cold War | Gender studies, gender groups | Aerospace & aviation technology

Published on 10^th June 2025 by Anthem Press in the United Kingdom as part of the 'Anthem Intercultural Transfer Studies' series.

Hardback | 304 pages
236mm x 160mm x 27mm | 616g

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.