The Ninety-Nines: How Women in Aviation Helped Feminism

Women have come a long way in paving the road to the lives we live today. In 1920, women were granted the right to vote in the United States. Feminism grew into something not thought of before this time and no longer focused strictly on the suffrage of women. This new force of feminism focused more on the independence and individualism of women being able to prove equality to their male counterparts (Feltus). There were many strong, important groups of women that worked to overcome the oppression put upon them. Katharine Hepburn, the budding actress; female athletes such as Babe Didrickson, and artists such as Georgia O'Keefe were only a few of these women. Women in aviation were the most daring of this new wave of strong, independent women, learning to fly as fast and as high as the men, and often breaking their records (Feltus).

In 1903, the Wright Brother's had their first 12-second flight and since then, women have made a great contribution to the world of aviation (Gant). The first woman pilot was a lady by the name of Blanche Scott in 1910 when the plane she was allowed to taxi became airborne (Gant). The year 1911 marked the first year a female became a licensed pilot. Her name was Harriet Quimby and she later became the first female pilot to fly across the English Channel (Gant). Clearly, women were making their way into the world of aviation and there was no turning back.

During the 1920's, women were not allowed to compete in air races. In 1929, a group of women created the first All Women's Air Derby, giving them the chance to finally prove themselves to the men. The men were worried that the course of flight was too dangerous for the women and they wanted to move the starting point to Omaha, Nebraska rather than flying over the Rockies. The women would hear of no such thing and the starting point was moved back to Santa Monica, California (Feltus). A woman by the name of Louis Thaden won that race with a total flight time of 22 hours and 2 minutes over the 8 day course (Gant). Even after having difficulties from take-off, Louise had pressed on with determination. She landed at the Fort Worth airport and mechanics discovered she had been inhaling exhaust fumes from the engine (Jessen, 1999). After fixing the problem, she regained route and ended up winning the 1929 air race.

After the 1929 air race, women got together to form an organization of female pilots. Of the four original women, Fay Gillis Wells wrote a letter to send to 117 fellow female pilots asking for their help in formulating the organization (Feltus). The meeting was held on November 2, 1929 in Long Island, New York in which 26 women sat around drinking tea and eating cookies while trying to come up with an appropriate name for themselves (Feltus). Amelia Earhart suggested the name The Ninety-Nines after the 99 women who had replied to the letter they had sent. The group agreed, and Amelia was voted in as the very first president of The Ninety-Nines (Feltus).

While growing up, Amelia moved a lot due to her father's job as a legal representative for many different railroads (Amelia Earhart Biographical Sketch). In 1916 she decided to join the war effort in Toronto while visiting her sister and by 1918 she had become a Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse at the Spadina Military Convalescent Hospital. While Amelia was in Toronto she frequently visited a local air field and was instantly attracted the idea of flying (Amelia Earhart Biographical Sketch). She returned to the United States and enrolled at Columbia University as a medical student, but soon realized that it was not what she wanted to do. In January of 1921 she began taking flying lessons and soon after bought her first airplane (Amelia Earhart Biographical Sketch). Amelia was the first woman to receive a National Aeronautic Association pilot's license and set her first aviation record in 1922 with a women's altitude of 14,000 feet (Amelia Earhart Biographical Sketch).

The main purpose behind forming such an organization was to simply get women pilots together to share in the efforts of women in the aviation field. It proposed "to assist them in any movement which will be of help to them in aeronautical research, air racing events, acquisition of aerial experience, maintenance of an economic status in the aviation industry, administering through the air in times of emergency arising from fire, famine, flood and war, or any other interest that will be for their benefit and/or that of aviation in general" (Brick).

There were many firsts for women as they entered the aviation industry. In 1931 Katherine Cheung became the first female of Chinese ancestry earn her pilot's license (Gant). The wife of Charles Lindbergh, Anne Morrow, was the first women to earn the National Geographic Society's Hubbad Award and was also the first woman glider pilot in the United States (Gant). Phoebe Fairgrave Omelie became the first female transport pilot and was considered to be one of the top women pilots through the 1930's. She later created a program specializing in the training of women flight instructors and became the Special Assistant for Air Intelligence of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (Gant).

A huge step for women came when Willa Brown became the first African-American commercial pilot and first African-American female officer in the Civil Air Patrol (Gant). Growing up in Chicago, Illinois she taught aviation courses at high schools and was the founder of the flight school located at Harlem Airport. Most impressive was her movement to help form the Nation Airmen's Association of America whose main goal was to get African-Americans in the United States Armed Forces as cadets in aviation (Gant). Seeing an African-American woman in aviation only pushed the women to keep proving themselves and by 1935 there were nearly 800 licensed female pilots in the United States (Gant).

During World War II women learned to fly through the Civil Aeronautics Authority's (CAA) Civil Pilot Training Program and of the 935 women who gained their licenses by 1941 there were 43 who served as CAA-qualified instructors (Gant). As the war continued, women were pushed in many directions with regards to aviation. They were given opportunities to serve as "ferry and test pilots, mechanics, flight controllers, instructors, and aircraft production line workers" (Gant). World War II was a huge benefactor in the progress of women in aviation and by 1943 women made up 31.3 percent of the aviation work force (Gant). Many more records were met and broken following the war, such as that of Marion Hart who, at the age of 62, flew across the Atlantic in 1954 (Gant).

The Ninety-Nines have grown massively since that first group of women got together. The United States alone is divided into eight section which are then divided into 70-something chapters, each having five to eighty members (Brick). In 1950 a group of Ninety-Nines flew to Ottawa to present the Ninety-Nines Canadian Charter and were honored by the Governor General of Canada, the United States Ambassador, and the United States Air Attache (Brick). Members of The Ninety-Nines are currently flying all around the world and it is said that "Ninety-Nines have friends at every airport" (Brick). Clearly they are an American legend and they define a huge step towards women's progress in a man's world.

References

Amelia earhart biographical sketch. (n.d.). Retrieved Mar. 17, 2006, from Amelia Earhart Web

site: http://www.lib.purdue.edu/spcol/aearhart/biog.html.

Brick, K. (n.d.). A glance backward. Retrieved Mar. 17, 2006, from Thirty Years at a Glance

Web site: http://www.ninety-nines.org/thirty.html.

Feltus, P. (n.d.). The ninety-nines. Retrieved Mar. 17, 2006, from The Ninety-Nines Web site:

http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Explorers_Record_Setters_and_Daredevils/99s/EX21.htm.

Gant, K. (n.d.). Women in aviation. Retrieved Mar. 17, 2006, from Women in Aviation Web site:

http://www.ninety-nines.org/wia.html.

Jessen, G. (1999). The 1929 air race. Retrieved Mar. 17, 2006, from The 1929 Air Race Web site: http://www.ninety-nines.org/1929airrace.html.