Abstract
The author compares four works (two scholarly and two popular) on the same topic: an early 1960s medical study by the Lovelace Clinic in Albuquerque of the feasibility of using women pilots for NASA's Mercury astronaut program. The essay includes a synopsis of the Lovelace study, stymied by politics and technical requirements, not solely by American society's reluctance to have females fly "Right Stuff" vehicles. In concluding that only one of the four books, Margaret Weitekamp's Right Stuff, Wrong Gender, is adequately researched, analyzed, and written, the author makes the point that more scholarly work needs to be done in the field of aerospace history and gender. Without contributions from qualified aerospace historians, the void in that subgenre will be filled by amateurs or historians without topical knowledge who may disregard accepted rules of evidence-gathering and analysis or simply be unable to accurately interpret and write about what they uncover.
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