Flights of empowered femininity: The Aviatrix and the creation of the “New Woman”

This dissertation proposes that the Axiatrix, the very first female fliers who emerged at the dawn of aviation technology, created a figure of ‘New Woman’. Examined within are the changing representations of women before, during and following the interwar year period in relation to the effect of modernisation and sporting and leisure activities, playing close attention to the development of aviation and how this new technology created a new space for women to exist within. This dissertation proposes that the figure of the female pilot - the Aviatrix - occupied a space of portrayal that extended the boundaries for the normative female of the time. The figure of the Aviatrix developed at a time when media cultures experienced a radical advancement and popularisation, which in conjunction led to the creation of the Aviatrix as a figure of celebrity. This concurrence of technology, of both the media and of aviation, and of the emergence of female participants from inception, means that the Aviatrix occupies a place that is brand new, not merely for moving into male dominated spaces and interacting with historically male notions of technology, but also creating an new image of a bold, competent and pioneering woman who could keep her feminine attributes in a world of evolving modernisation.