Women and military aviation in the Second World War: A comparative study of the United States of America and USSR, 1941--1945

The Soviet Union was the first state to allow women pilots to fly in combat; nearly a thousand women served in three primarily female regiments, while still others flew with predominantly male units. Women in the West were relegated to support roles: in the United Kingdom, women flew with the Air Transport Auxiliary; in the United States, a thousand women served with the Women's Airforce Service Pilots (WASP). Soviet women were combatants and held full military rank, while American women were noncombatants who served with, but not in, the military. Despite these differences, there were many similarities in the Western and Soviet experience, especially in terms of unit formation, leadership, and recruitment.;This dissertation is a comparative study of women who flew in military aviation during the Second World War in the Soviet Union and the United States, societies with dramatically different cultures, political structures, and military institutions, which faced disparate wartime challenges. This dissertation analyzes the reasons why women in both societies were accepted into military aviation in wartime, then cast out in peacetime; and examines issues of gender integration, unit cohesion, and performance within the context of war, the military, and society, taking into account the concerns of both military history and women's history.