WOMEN and WASPs: Female Fliers and Their Contributions to Aviation
by Ann Pfiefle, M.A.: US History; Riverside Community College, California.
Full text from an Exhibition at March Field Air Museum: March 6 through June 1, 2002,
Curated by Steve Clugston.
Janet Bragg on the left: an early African-American aviator and associate women fliers. c.1930s
INTRODUCTION
Throughout the brief 100 years of the history of aviation, women have played an important role in the development and advancement of the science of powered flight*. However, the field of aviation has been predominantly male dominated, often to the exclusion of recognition of women aviators' contributions to the advancement of flight. Although American women have flown since 1908, nearly all of them were restricted to general aviation positions (i.e. private planes or support jobs). Much has changed for women in the 20th Century and nowhere is this more apparent than in the role for women in aviation.
Today, women have gained nearly full and complete access to military and commercial cockpits as well as the Space Shuttle and in the field of aerospace technology. This exhibit chronicles the impact of US women in aviation history focusing on women pilots. Although the field is still dominated by men, women have made significant contributions that are finally being recognized. These women and their stories testify to a universal human passion for flying that was, and is, unaffected by gender.
*Powered flight excludes ballooning in which women were participants since the 1790s.
WOMEN IN EARLY FLIGHT
The early years of flight were filled with excitement, risk and feats of engineering for pilots but for women fliers it was also a period filled with barriers. Many people in society felt flying was just for men. It was not considered "ladylike." Women were also considered "temperamentally unfitted" for flying because they were believed to be prone to panic.
However, these misconceptions did not diminish the dreams of early women fliers. Since Orville and Wilbur Wright took their 12-second flight in 1903, women have made a significant contribution to aviation. Katherine Wright, Orville and Wilbur's sister, assisted her brothers in the construction of their history-making aircraft. And, in September 1908, Mrs. Hart O. Berg - after watching Wilbur demonstrate the Wright Flyer in Le Mans, France - asked Wilbur for a ride making her the first American woman to fly as a passenger in an airplane, soaring for 2 minutes and 7 seconds.
It was not until 1910 that the world had its first woman pilot. Blanche Stuart Scott became the first woman pilot when the plane she was allowed to taxi (her instructor had blocked the throttle to keep a woman from flying) mysteriously became airborne. A few weeks later, Bessica Raiche was bestowed the honor of being America's first female aviator following her first solo flight because it could never be officially established if Scott's flight was intentional or accidental. The following year Harriet Quimby became the first licensed female pilot and, in 1912, became the first woman to fly across the English Channel. Sadly, Quimby and her passenger were killed on July 1, 1912, when her Blériot monoplane plummeted in a precipitous dive and they were thrown from the plane in a performance at the Harvard-Boston aviation meet. Other women of note in this period include: Matilde Moisant, who established a record
for the shortest time learning to fly; Katherine Stinson who was considered by many to be the most daring stunt flier of her generation and the first woman to fly the US mail; and Ruth Law, who set an American cross-country nonstop record in late 1916.
With the entrance of the United States into the Great War in 1917, women wanted to fly for the US Army but were turned down. Female aviators faced a distinctive dilemma as great as any posed by weather, mechanical failures or competitors: the condescension of those who thought women could not, or should not, fly.
This was made clear when, then Secretary of War, Newton Diehl Baker stated, "We don't want women in the Army." And the Army certainly did not want women as pilots! Responding to the rejection of her services, Ruth Law penned an article for Air Travel in 1918 in which she stated her discontent: "There is the world-old controversy that crops up again whenever women attempt to enter a new field - Is woman fitted for this or that work?"
Law, Katherine Stinson and other top female pilots of the era were restricted to flying on recruiting tours and fund-raising flights for the war effort even though women had repeatedly confirmed that women were fit to fly. This was not the first time, nor would it be the last, that women pilots faced discrimination because of their sex.
It would not be until 1921 that a woman of color would break the racial barrier in aviation. After being unable to find a white pilot to train her, Bessie Coleman travelled to Paris, France (where they had more liberal ideas about race). There she earned a pilot's license in June 1921, becoming the world's first African- American woman pilot and the world's first licensed black aviator. She returned to the United States to teach other black women to fly and became a barnstorming air circus performer until her death in a training accident in April 1926.
The years from 1903 to 1929 were filled with many obstacles for women in aviation both in acquiring training and licensing; however, despite these deterrents, by 1930 there were 200 licensed women pilots. Women had become instructors operating flight schools, aeronautical draftspersons, airplane engine inspectors, mechanics, barnstormers, stunt pilots, passenger and cargo pilots, as well as selling and servicing airplanes - not to mention setting aviation records worldwide. However, it was still the case that women in aviation were considered one-at-a-time curiosities.
Women Aviation Competitors c. 1930s: Amelia Earhart , 7th from the left, Pancho Barnes on the right.
SPREAD OF FLIGHT
The role of women in flight expanded in the late 1920s through the 1930s. Some of the most sensational demonstrations of their skills as aviators came in air races. The first Women's Air Derby began in California on August 29, 1929.
Besides exhibiting their skills, the air races provided women with a sense of community and the opportunity to meet with other female pilots - many of whom had never met another woman flier. In an effort to maintain and continue this sense of community, 26 licensed pilots met in November 1929 to discuss the creation of a woman's flying organization. After many rejected names, they chose The Ninety-Nines because of the 99 of 117 licensed US female pilots who signed up for membership by the application deadline. The group was organized by some of the most experienced women fliers of their day including: Evelyn "Bobbi" Trout, Louise Thaden, Florence "Pancho" Barnes, Phoebe Omlie, and America's most well known female pilot, Amelia Earhart. In 1932, Earhart was the first woman to fly solo, nonstop across the Atlantic. Her pioneering aviation activities and records notwithstanding, Earhart is most remembered for the mystery that surrounds what became her last flight. On July 2, 1937, she disappeared near Howland Island in the Pacific during an attempt at an around-the-world flight.
Other women who set and broke numerous endurance and altitude records in this era include: Evelyn "Bobbi" Trout, Louise Thaden, Pancho Barnes, Elinor Smith, Phoebe Omlie and Blanche Noyes.
Thaden and Noyes were the first women to win the prestigious Bendix Trophy Race in 1936 - a race that until 1933 had been for men only. Men and women have raced together ever since. Barnes and Trout formed the Women's Air Reserve (W.A.R) whose principle purpose was to aid in disasters, where it was impossible to reach people in need of medical attention, except by plane.
In addition, Barnes became the first woman motion picture stunt pilot in 1929. Omlie became the first woman transport pilot. In Los Angeles, in 1931, Katherine Cheung became the first woman of Chinese ancestry to earn a pilot's license. Anne Morrow Lindbergh - although often overshadowed by her husband Charles' aviation accomplishments - became the first woman glider pilot. By 1935 there were between 700-800 licensed female pilots even though the United States was in the middle of the Great Depression when it was difficult enough to pay for the basics, let alone paying for "extras" like flying lessons, licensing fees, gasoline, and a plane. However, by the end of the decade things would change.
THE WAR YEARS
In early 1939, the US government, cognizant that war seemed probable in Europe and the US might become involved, realized it needed more pilots. The Army set up low-cost classes - Civilian Pilot Training (CPT) classes - to train students to fly. The classes were only $40 and there were no restrictions on female participation although only about one woman was admitted for every 10 men. Unfortunately in June 1941, the Army decided it could no longer afford to train those who would not be serving in combat - meaning women. Women were no longer allowed to take CPT classes but by then several hundred women had been trained as pilots.
WATERSHED IN AVIATION
Although the Army set up the Aeronautical Division of the Signal Corps in 1907 and World War I demonstrated that airplanes could be useful in combat, many in the Army were unimpressed with the prospects of aviation in waging war and considered flying simply an interesting hobby.
In 1926, Congress did establish the Army Air Forces but funding for the Air Corps was quite erratic - especially during the Depression. But by the late 1930s as Europe and Asia became embroiled in war, it became apparent that aviation would play a critical role in the final outcome of the ensuing events and some recognized the important role women would play in this outcome.
By December 1941 when the United States was attacked by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor, nearly 3,000 American women had managed to learn to fly despite the many hindrances to their success. Female aviators, who had struggled for the right to serve in the air during the First World War, were determined to put their aviation skills and experience to practical use in the now inevitable Second World War. The World War II era was a watershed in aviation history, especially for women. Instead of joining the auxiliary corps of the Army, Navy, Marines and Coast Guard, women pilots wanted to use their special aviation skills in service to the country. Three people are credited with making this happen: Jackie Cochran, Nancy Harkness Love, and Henry H. "Hap" Arnold.
JACKIE COCHRAN
By 1941, Jackie Cochran was one of the most famous female US pilots. She survived a rough childhood in small southern towns to emerge as a savvy businesswoman who opened her own cosmetics company. In the early 1930s, on the advice and dare of the millionaire businessman Floyd Odlum (who she would later marry) she earned her pilot's license so she could cover more territory to sell her cosmetic products. Little did she know that Odlum's dare would change her life. As her first flight instructor said, she was born a pilot. Cochran took more instruction and was competing and winning air races in her first few years of flying. In 1937, she was named the best female flier - only five years after learning to fly!
In September 1939, Cochran wrote a letter to Eleanor Roosevelt - a supporter of women's rights and the First Lady - advancing a plan that women could provide a good deal of services for the Air Corps including: administrative flying, testing, ferrying, mechanical experience…essentially everything except combat missions.
This proposal was not officially made to anyone at the Air Corps - at least not until the spring of 1941 when war seemed imminent. In that year, Cochran met with General "Hap" Arnold, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Army Air Corps, and volunteered her services for the war effort.
Short of pilots, especially pilots willing to ferry planes across the Atlantic Ocean, he told her if she ferried a plane to England, other pilots might be willing to take the risk. Arnold figured that if a woman had the audacity to do it, men would surely follow. In turn, Cochran figured that if the idea worked, it might give the Air Corps the courage to recruit women. She ferried a Lockheed Hudson bomber to Scotland. There Cochran met and was briefed by Pauline Gower, who had formed a women's division of Britain's Air Transport Auxiliary the previous year, about her work with women pilots.
Upon her return to the United States, Cochran met with President Franklin D. Roosevelt who had been intrigued by her flight. She presented her idea for organizing women pilots to perform all kinds of domestic flying jobs so men could be released for combat duty. He was willing to endorse the plan and put it into motion. A proposal that originated in 1939 was now in motion under the title "Organization of a Woman Pilots Division of the Air Corps Ferrying Command."
NANCY HARKNESS LOVE
Meanwhile in May of 1940, the Chief of the Army Air Corps Ferrying Command, Colonel Robert Olds, received a letter from pilot Nancy Harkness Love who advanced her idea that the Air Corps should consider using women aviators as ferrying pilots (delivering planes from one place to another) should there be a war. Nancy grew up comfortably in Philadelphia where she learned to fly at age 16. She had a number of flying jobs before marrying Bob Love and starting an aircraft sales company with him in Boston. Although Colonel Olds declined her offer - the idea of women in the cockpits of military planes seemed just too radical at the time - he filed her letter away for future reference.
By December 11, 1941, the United States was fighting a war on two fronts - and the Air Force estimates of pilot and aircraft needs increased dramatically. General Arnold, now the Army Deputy Chief of Staff for Air and Chief of the newly organized US Army Air Forces, contacted Jackie Cochran, who was preparing to leave for England with 24 other female pilots to help with the Allied war effort. He made her a deal: Should her idea of recruiting women for the Air Force be accepted and implemented, Arnold would call her back to direct such a Women's Pilot Division; however, for the time being she should go to England as they had previously planned.
CROSSED WIRES
In the chaos associated with the abrupt entrance of the US into the war, especially one it was not prepared to fight, Nancy Love was contacted by Colonel William Tunner, commander of the Domestic Wing of the Ferrying Division, about implementing her plan for a women's plane delivery service.
On September 10, 1942, the Army officially announced the creation of the WAFS - Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron - under the direction of Nancy Love. As it turns out, General George, in charge of Air Transport Command, jumped the gun in his announcement but it was too late to reverse the order. Thirty-eight telegrams were sent inviting women to participate in a Ferrying Division experiment which would allow women to fly Air Force planes. Those who were willing and able (women had to have a commercial pilot's license, a 200hp rating, at least 500 hours logged, be a high school graduate, and be between the ages of 21 and 35) were to make their way to New Castle County Airport in Wilmington, Delaware. By December 1942, the WAFS totaled 28 at which point Colonel Tunner ordered, "Enroll no more WAFS."
Upon her return from England on September 10, 1942, Jackie Cochran landed in New York to see that the Army had implemented her program without her as promised by General Arnold. She met with Arnold on September 12th where it was decided that a separate program - with a much broader plan -- would be established under Cochran's direction. Two days later, the Women's Flying Training Detachment (WFTD - nicknamed "Woofteddies") designated as the 319th Army Air Forces Flying Training was created. It received official approval on September 15, 1942 with the initial goal to supply trained pilots exclusively for service in WAFS.
Cochran flew to Houston to check out facilities for training women pilots. On November 16, 28 female pilots reported for training at Houston Municipal Airport to be schooled by a civilian contractor, Aviation Enterprises. Although the women knew how to fly, they would be instructed in flying military planes - "to fly the Army way." Their training was based on the regular Army course given to aviation cadets except for gunnery training, formation flying and certain fundamentals the women did not need because they already knew how to fly.
Women from all over the country and from different walks of life came to train in Texas. Many women pilots jumped at the opportunity that allowed them to serve their country in a time of war as well as the chance to work with other female pilots and fly military planes.
Cochran insisted on a military emphasis and discipline, which created a somewhat odd situation, since the women were in fact civilians. However, Cochran intended that the women pilots would eventually be militarized and would be eligible for the same benefits military personnel were entitled.
But for now, the women were happy just to be flying. Both Love's and Cochran's programs were fully implemented by the end of 1942. By February 1943 the first class of WFTD had graduated. None of the original group quit - some failed to meet requirements or left for medical reasons - but not one woman quit. That same month the second WFTD school began at Avenger Field outside Sweetwater, Texas. By May 1943, Avenger Field became the primary training school when Houston was closed to training.
Pistol Packin' Mama: 4 WASP pilots.
WASP
What began as two separate plans for female pilots to serve in WWII merged into one program in August, 1943. The WFTD and WAFS were combined into one group known officially as Women Airforce Service Pilots or WASP*. Cochran became the Director of Women Pilots within the Army Air Forces and Love was the WASP executive on the Ferry Division Headquarters staff.
*The 27 women who served with Nancy Harkness Love as WAFS were allowed to keep their title and uniform even after the name change.
NOT A PLACE FOR EVERYONE
For as open-minded a program that many considered the WASP, it was not as "open" as it could have been. Few women of color served in the WASP. There were two Asian Americans, Maggie Gee and Ah Ying Lee, and one Native American, but no African Americans who served as WASP.
The armed forces were still segregated and African Americans could not serve in the same units as whites. Although the Army set up a special base at Tuskegee, Alabama, to give pilot training to about 900 African-American men, no training was given to African-American women pilots. Jackie Cochran discouraged African Americans from joining the WASP because she felt that fighting prejudice against female aviators was difficult enough without additionally battling race discrimination. Several qualified black women applied; however, none were accepted for training. Two African American women who were not allowed to join the WASP were Jane Harmon Bragg and Willa Brown. Bragg wrote an autobiography, Soaring Above Setbacks, in which she acknowledged her anger at the discriminatory policies. She states, "I was refused [entrance into WASP] because of the color of my skin. After this rejection I was upset. I knew I could fly. I even had my own plane!" Although she was a well-qualified pilot, she was rejected from service because of the racist policies of the US military.
Although she would not have been allowed to serve in WASP, Willa Brown was the first African American commercial pilot and the only woman in 1943 to possess a mechanic's and commercial license in aviation. Brown lobbied Congress and helped draft the legislation that was passed that allowed African Americans in the Civilian Pilot Training Program. She also became the Director of the Coffey School of Aeronautics that was a feeder school to the famed Tuskegee Institute.
It is important to recognize that although African American women did not serve as WASP, they did serve courageously in segregated units of the Women's Army Corps (WAC), Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES), Semper Paratus Always Ready (SPAR - Coast Guard), and Women Marines during WWII.
TRAINING
WASP training was nearly identical to the training male cadets received and the percentage of students who finished training successfully was the same for women as for men - and so were their clothes.
The Army provided the female pilots with the same overalls that were made for men. WASPs called the overalls "zoot suits" after the baggy suits that were popular with some men at the time. The Army also provided each WASP with a leather jacket that the women decorated with a cartoon mascot named Fifi designed by artists at Walt Disney Studios.
However, the women did not receive a uniform as they were civilians and not officially in the Army. Cochran's trainees decided on an unofficial uniform of khaki pants and white shirts for graduation and to wear while on the job. The pilots in Love's ferry service bought grey suits.
Of course, these clothes would be at the trainees' own expense unlike the uniforms for their male counterparts. While it might seem a trivial issue, the fight for a uniform was significant. On ferrying missions, there were problems of recognition for the WASP. A few women had been arrested for impersonating an officer because they did not have an easily recognizable uniform. Also, some women were excluded from nightclubs and restaurants where a woman in slacks was considered inappropriate.
However, it would not be until the spring of 1944 that Cochran would finally persuade the Army to give all the women pilots their own uniform, a perfectly tailored suit in "Santiago" blue and beret created by the Manhattan designer Bergdorf Goodman. On February 11, 1944 the forty-nine graduates of WASP Class 44-W-1 were officially issued uniforms.
Not only did the WASP have to cope with ill-fitting Army clothing but they faced a number of special circumstances because of their sex. Besides dealing with the rigorous training to which they were exposed, one of the biggest issues the WASP had to confront was society's and the Army's requirements to maintain their "femininity" while fulfilling their expectations as pilots.
Women improvised ingenious ways of maintaining their "feminine" appearance while still fulfilling their duties as pilots by making room for make-up, brushes, and extra shoes and clothes in the cramped cockpits of their planes. Even though they did attempt to maintain their feminine appearance, the WASP were often met with open hostility by those who thought women pilots were unnatural and had no business in a "man's job."
Some of the problems the WASP faced were due to the Army's poor planning. For example, most of the training facilities and air bases lacked a sufficient number of "ladies rooms" for the growing number of women participating in aviation positions.
An important oversight by the Army for women fliers was the lack of a "relief tube" system in the cockpit of the planes they were flying. The tubes they had for men to go to the bathroom while flying long distances did not work for women. Women just had to learn to control their bladders.
In addition, the Army Air Force refused to change its procedures just because it now had a few women in its service. Some women had to participate in chemical weapon exposure training even though they would not be in combat as well as attend classes on how to survive in the Arctic and the jungle, and they were required to watch a film on the effects of social diseases on male genitalia.
In addition, Ferrying Division administrators ordered women not to fly during the menstrual cycles for fear that they were at a greater risk of fainting during their menses. As it turned out, no women pilots were grounded because of the order - the male flight surgeons refused to pressure the women to give such information - but the order illustrates the mentality of some in military administration at the time.
One of the most important distinctions the WASP faced was their status as civilians. Although by 1943, the WAC, WAVES, SPAR, and Women Marines were militarized and received full military benefits and honors, the WASP were maintained as a civilian force and received no such benefits. However, they did receive the benefits of camaraderie and shared experience with other women pilots. Whatever these women faced, they faced it together.
Altogether, 1,830 women passed all the necessary entry requirements and medical exams and were accepted into the training program in Texas. During training, half of each day was spent flying and the other half was spent in classes learning the science of flying and becoming competent mechanics. Some of the planes used to train these women included the open cockpit PT-19 and PT-17 trainers, BT-13 Valiant, AT-6 Texan, and AT-17 Cessna Bobcat. Throughout training, students were constantly tested. They had to "check out", or pass, check rides on one type of plane before moving to the next plane in the training series. If the student failed a check ride twice, she "washed out" and had to leave the WASP training. More than half of those who were accepted - 1,074 - completed the training successfully.
THE WOMEN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT AND VIETNAM
1960s-1970s
Women's struggle to gain access to the cockpits of military jets was indicative of a larger struggle that was emerging in American society by the 1960s. The question of civil rights had been an ever-growing issue in the American consciousness for sometime and women had a significant stake in the outcome of the debate.
Actually, the pioneering women of aviation helped set the stage for the women's rights movement that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s. Two critical pieces of legislation, the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, proved to be particularly important to women - including women in aviation professions.
The Equal Pay Act required equal pay for equal work and Title VII prohibited all discrimination on the basis of sex. While this legislation did not alleviate all problems that women faced in the workplace, the passage of these pieces of legislation illustrated that social views of women in traditionally male dominated fields were changing.
In addition to legislation, organizations such as the National Organization for Women (NOW) were created and became important advocates for women's rights - including the rights of women in the fields of aviation and aerospace technology. Many people in society were becoming more aware of the vacuity of the sexual and racial stereotypes associated with specific occupations. Times were changing - but not nearly quickly enough.
VIETNAM
Thousands of women served in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam era. This conflict, and the United States' involvement in the war in Vietnam, still haunts Americans today.
Whatever one's position is concerning the war, it is important to remember those who served, especially those servicewomen who are often forgotten. In 1961, the first US pilots and planes were sent to Vietnam to support the South Vietnamese troops fighting a civil war against the Viet Cong. There was a key shift in attitudes regarding women in military service with the escalation of the Vietnam War. Americans were increasingly unwilling to serve in a war they believed to be unjust; therefore, the draft had to be re-instituted in 1967.
At the same time, the military planned to increase the number of women serving in the military and opened the positions in which they could serve. To increase the numbers of women in the military and to improve their status, Public Law 90-130 was signed in November 1967. The law removed all restrictions on the promotion of female officers and removed all limitations on the number of female personnel who could be employed in the Armed Forces.
Although the law did not achieve all that some hoped it would, it did mean that women would once again be utilized in nontraditional career specialties. While the US military was still unwilling to use women pilots in combat missions in this conflict, women served, were injured, and died in service in Vietnam. Over 500 WACs were stationed in Vietnam, Women Marines served, and over 600 WAFs were there - not to mention untold numbers of civil and special service personnel.
Although women pilots were still not being used by the US military, the status of women in the military was changing. In 1971, Jeanne M. Holm became the first woman in the Air Force to be promoted to the rank of general - and other women were on their way up the ranks.
However, it was the Navy, not the Air Force, that took the first step in allowing women pilots. In 1973, six women earned their wings and became the first female Naval aviators. The following year, the Army trained its first female helicopter pilots. It was not until 1976 that the Air Force admitted women to the US Air Force Academy for the first time. However, because of the existing policies, women's flying was limited to non-combat missions. Female military pilots were still not allowed to fly combat aircraft.
RECOGNITION OF WASPs
In the 1970s, when the Navy, Army, and Air Force included women in their pilots training programs, the media claimed that the new women pilots were the first women to fly US military aircraft. The WASP who heard such reports were flabbergasted and outraged. The WAFS and WASP had flown US military planes 30 years earlier but it seemed people had forgotten those civilian servicewomen. The news reports reinvigorated women's efforts to demand recognition for the WASP.
The women pilots found a friend and supporter in Republican Senator Barry Goldwater, who had been a ferry pilot during the war and had worked with WASPs. He cosponsored a new bill "to provide recognition to the Women's Airforce Service Pilots for service to their country by deeming such service to have been active duty in the Armed Forces of the United States for purposes of laws administered by the Veterans' Administration."
A significant lobbying effort brought national attention to the cause. Not surprisingly, they met with a good deal of opposition. Some veterans' groups did not want to grant veteran status to these women for fear that recognizing them would denigrate the status of male veterans. The House and Senate disregarded the opposition's arguments and on the afternoon of Nov. 3, 1977, approved legislation officially recognizing WASP as military personnel.
COMBAT ROLES, ADVANCEMENT, AND SPACE TRAVEL
1980s, 1990s & TODAY
COMBAT ROLES
Although the military had trained women pilots since 1976, the services maintained combat exclusion laws, the type of aircraft women were allowed to fly and manipulated gender quotas and pilot slots. From 1976 until 1993, women pilots were officially kept out of the cockpits of combat aircraft in actual combat.
In 1990, women's role in the military took on a new dimension in Operation Desert Storm. USAF Colonel Kelly Hamilton (KC-135 Pilot), and other women like her, challenged her commanders to deploy women to Desert Shield/Desert Storm - and won.
Hamilton flew over 200 hours during the Gulf War but her hours were not considered "combat hours." Women like Air Force First Lt. Ellen Ausman (Navigator EC-130) and Captain Michelle Tallon (E-3 Pilot) also participated in various aviation operations in Desert Storm even though their presence was exempted from military combat records. Only fighters, bombers, and attack aircraft could officially log combat time.
Mobilization for the Gulf War included an unprecedented proportion of women with over 40,000 US military women serving in key combat-support positions throughout the region. It was not until 1993 that women pilots were allowed to fly combat aircraft for the military. As of today, 97 percent of all Air Force positions are open to women. In the present war on terrorism, women pilots are participating as never before. Women pilots have flown numerous combat missions over Afghanistan with little media attention.
ADVANCEMENT
Women in aviation in the 1970s used legislation and litigation to affect change and improve the status of women in aviation. The women hired and promoted in the era were sometimes only token female employees, but never had so many new fields - both civil and military - been opened to women.
The accomplishments of the women of this era led the way for the women of the 1980s and 1990s. As of today, the United States has more women in aviation, in a greater diversity of occupations, and protected by more laws, than any other country in the world.
Professionally and socially, women pilots have become less isolated and are no longer considered "curiosities" in the field of aviation. While there are still fields that have low female participation (for example there are few female commercial airline pilots), the current changes in attitudes and opportunities for women are obvious as one examines the involvement of women in nearly every facet of aviation.
SPACE TRAVEL
While Sally Ride is remembered as the first US woman in space, Air Force Colonel Eileen Collins was the first woman to command a space shuttle mission in 1999. As a pilot who had logged over 5,000 hours in over 30 different aircraft, Collins became an astronaut in 1991. She served as pilot of two shuttle missions prior to her appointment as commander of the Space Shuttle Columbia in July, 1999 - exploding one of the last frontiers in aviation. In addition to Collins, two women are currently qualified to fly the shuttle - Susan Still and Pamela Melroy.
EPILOGUE
Women have been key figures in aviation since the inception of powered flight. The first female licensed pilot took flight in 1911, and since then women have been integral players in the field of aviation. They dared to dream, took the risks, challenged themselves and society, and inspired others along the way. From the earliest days of flight, women extended their standing and importance in the field of aviation. In the process, they have influenced the field in immeasurable ways and have brought about some fundamental changes in attitudes about women aviators. Acceptance of female fliers did not always come easily or without controversy, but it did come.
The following sources served as foundational sources for the above text:
Books:
Douglas, Deborah G. United States Women in Aviation 1940-1985. Washington,
DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990.
Haynsworth, Leslie and David Toomey. Amelia Earhart's Daughters: The Wild
and Glorious Story of American Women Aviators from World War II to the
Dawn of the Space Age. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc.,
1998.
Holden, Henry M. and Captain Lori Griffith. Ladybirds II: The Continuing Story of
Women in Aviation. Mt. Freedom, NJ: Black Hawk Publishing, 1993.
Moolman, Valerie: Women Aloft. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1981.
Nathan, Amy. Yankee Doodle Gals: Women Pilots of World War II. Washington,
DC: National Geographic Society, 2001.
Websites:
www.ninety-nines.org - The Ninety-Nines, the International Organization of Women Pilots.
www.wasp-wwii.org - WASP on the web.
www.womensmemorial.org/ - Women in Military Service for American Memorial.
www.twu.edu/library/collections.htm - Texas Woman's University Library.