History Commons^™

"Flying Is Changing Women!": Women Popularizers Of Commercial Aviation And The Renegotiation Of Traditional Gender And Technological Boundaries In The 1920s-30s, Emily K. Gibson

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

This thesis explores how the complex interplay between gender and technology significantly shaped the popularization of commercial aviation in the United States during the 1920s and 30s. As technological innovations improved both the safety and efficiency of airplanes during the early part of the twentieth century, commercial aviation industries increasingly worked to position flight as a viable means of mass transportation. In order to win the trust and money of potential passengers, however, industry proponents recognized the need to separate flight from its initial association with danger and masculine strength by convincing the general public of aviation’s safety and reliability. …

For Love Or Money: Labor Rights And Citizenship For Working Women Of 1930s Oaxaca, Mexico, Sandra K. Haley

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

This project examines the ways in which gendered discourses were strategically deployed by working women in their own interests during the years of Cardenismo. One result of this activism is the fluorescence of a number of court cases in the capitol of Oaxaca in south-central Mexico, Ciudad Oaxaca de Juárez. Hundreds of working women sued former employers between 1929 and 1938, which were unusually high numbers not seen before or since. Offenses cited include nonpayment of wages, firing without sufficient cause, and “other offenses” – usually quite juicy in the details.

The majority of the women worked as household domestic …