❝ From the moment Gentry decided to fly she set a course for the sky and did not let anything – be it discrimination, financial hardship, misguided landings, crashes, physical limitations or tragedy – put an end to her dreams.❞
~ JB Bower on Viola Gentry[1]

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Viola Gentry really didn’t let anything avert her from pursuing her passion for aviation – including a fractured skull and bankruptcy. Like most of the other women pilots we came across in Part I of this blog, once she immersed herself into the flying caper, she became a “rusted-on” flyer for life.

What made a pioneer aviatrix?
What type of women were attracted to such a perilous activity? Why were they, faced with the prospect of trying to fly what were pretty basic, sometimes untested aircrafts (often in effect highly unsafe, volatile death traps) so fearless in the air? On one level it was the same motivation, the same derring-do, that spurred on the male pioneers at the time – flying had caught the popular imagination of the day … humankind was winning the age-old attempt to defy the laws of gravity, and aviators, male and female, were determined to be in the vanguard. Like Charles Lindbergh, Louis Blériot, Charles Kingsford Smith and other early male flyers, the aviatrices were invariably “thrill junkies”, once they were bitten by the bug, for many of them that was it! Flying in a tiny plane, exposed to the elements, bird-like, with an open cockpit, imbued the pilots of that period with an overwhelming sense of (spatial) freedom. Aviatrices were driven by an adrenalin rush to go faster, longer, higher – even at the peril of the loss of their own lives, a fate that befell quite a number of them.

AM Earhart [Photo: Entertainment Weekly]

Echoes of the modern feminist woman
The glory that came from the achievement of phenomenal feats in the air was obviously a spur to the first-wave aviatrix. As with the comparable male aviators the women flyers were totally into the “fame game” that came with the conquest of the skies. As Amelia Earhart remarked: “the woman who can create her own job is the woman who will win fame and fortune”[5] … this hints at more than simply fame as a motivator for women in the male-dominated business. Earhart’s observation embodies what we today call the concept of female empowerment – Earhart and her peers saw making a go of it as pilots in an aviation industry rife with male chauvinism as a way of becoming economic independent of men … a successful avatrix could carve out a niche of self-sufficiency and escape a life of dependence in the patriarchal society of that era❈.

Social constraints on the aviatrix
The aviatrix however faced challenges that the male aviator didn’t – discrimination towards her gender. Society in the interwar period still tended to frown on what they were trying to do. The idea of the aviatrix clearly went against the grain of that era’s rigid stereotyping of female roles. Many people (and the bulk of the aviation industry) thought flying was an exclusively male preserve and that women’s place should not be in the cockpit of a Gipsy Moth, a Gee Bee or an AVRO Avian, but at home concentrating on the family’s domestic duties and caring for the children.

Many men, including contemporary aviators, disapproved of what the women were trying to achieve and some had put barriers in their way. Instructors for instance often refused to teach women, claiming that they didn’t have the physical makeup or the fortitude to handle flying. When Harriet Quimby died in an air accident in 1912 the New York newspapers cited the incident as ‘evidence’ that women “had no business flying and should get out of it”[6].

The Beech 17 Stagger-wing and Louise Thaden

The American transcontinental air derbies
In the 1920s when long-distance air racing came into fashion, race officials at first refused to allow women pilots to compete with the men, arguing that women weren’t skilled enough to compete against men … question marks were raised as to whether women pilots could cope with the stresses and endurance of races. Occasionally women were allowed to compete with the men in some events, but any fatality involving a woman (as happened in a 1933 race) “gave race officials one more excuse to exclude women”. The 1936 victory by Louise Thaden✦ in the prestigious Bendix Trophy Race against a seasoned field of male aviators however represented a game-changer for women air racers[7].

Intra-gender rivalry
Competing against the status quo of male aviators was only part of the attempts by aviatrices to consolidate their foothold in aviation. Competition between the women pilots pushed all of them on to even greater achievements. Distinct rivalries developed between the elite aviatrices, eg, E ‘Bobbi’ Trout and Viola Gentry, and between the “two Jacquelines” – Cochran and Auriol (US v France). In these head-to-head rivalries the respective pilots engaged in a constant swapping of women’s world records for speed and distance[8]. Competition between aviatrices whilst fierce seems to have been largely of a friendly nature … the aviatrices all had a common purpose of trying to inspire confidence in other young women to follow their pathway.

Male attitudes to aviatrices, even when they didn’t oppose the notion of female pilots outright, was clearly patronising … a common early complaint was that flying was ‘unseemly’ for a young woman. Often relatives of aspiring girl aviators would raise the safety aspect, and some, such as Lilian Bland’s father, offered inducements to give up the hazardous pastime – in this case the gift of a motor car[9]. Sexism was blatantly transparent in this environment❦ … casual assumptions by men in the industry reinforced this – famed aviation inventor and manufacturer Glenn Curtiss rebuffed star aviatrix Ruth Law’s request for a large plane, because it “was too much for a girl to handle”[10]. The assumption that women pilots lacked the physical strength to fly certain planes was a regular refrain from men in the industry.

Financial considerations were a factor for many would-be aviatrices. There were some of the early aviatrices who were from a well-off socio-economic background (rich husbands, beneficiaries of inheritances or professional women of independent means) and thus had the money, leisure and inclination to indulge their interest in the field … women like New York dentist and doctor Bessica Raiche who flew the biplane she had built in her own living room[11]. But for other female would-be flyers from working class backgrounds, especially quite impoverished ones, it was always going to be much more of a struggle – it was expensive to learn to fly (even after you found someone who was willing to teach you!), let alone the often prohibitive cost of buying a small plane yourself❀. Finding someone, usually a male, to take you on (even after becoming qualified as competent) as an apprentice commercial pilot was even harder for aviatrices to achieve.

Being a woman aspiring to make it as a pilot was only one of the disadvantages Bessie Coleman had to contend with. Coleman had to overcome an impoverished Southern background only to face added discrimination from the industry because she was African-American and native American. In the 1920s she was forced to move to France (with its more enlightened views on the place of the aviatrix) to obtain flying lessons and her licence … before later returning to the US to find fame as a ‘barnstormer'[12].

Woman pilots in war-time: The WASPs
Amber Dzelzkalns has shown how even later, during WWII, discrimination and prejudice against female pilots remained the norm. The US Air Force, to make up the shortfall of male combat pilots required during the war, created the paramilitary Women Airforce Service Pilots (or as it became known WASPs). Director of the WASP service was Jacky Cochran pioneer aviatrix and winner of the Bendix Trophy in 1938. The WASP pilots were trained by male instructors who often resented the imposition of women into their ranks. Once qualified, the women pilots were used by the military in a “guinea pig” role to test planes that were deemed too dangerous for male pilots to fly. After two years of operation the WASPs were summarily disbanded without the pension entitlements accruing to male military pilots[13]. Certainly the WASPs’ circumstance was one chapter of the aviation story in which women were denied “equality at 10,000 feet”.

Despite all of the barriers placed in their way, and the disapprobation of society at large (and perhaps because of all these hurdles), so many women persisted single-mindedly and unrelentingly until they had realised their dream to fly. The sense of making history and breaking down a door that had been barred to women was always uppermost in the minds of aviatrices … as Margot De Moss, one of the WASP veterans, summarised it, “We were trailblazers because we got in where no women had ever been in before”[14].

Neta Snook, the first woman to enter a men’s air race (1921) and best known for teaching Amelia Earhart to fly, neatly encapsulated the strategy of many determined aviatrices in a male-dominated sphere … “I’ve got to fly as cleverly, as audaciously, as thrillingly as any man aviator in the world”[15].

Aviatrix Harriet Quimby

Endnote: Achieving the status of pilot in a world of male aviation struck a significant blow for the cause of feminism and female equality in those pioneering days. As female pilot Margery Brown put it, “A woman who can find fulfillment in the skies will never again need to live her life in some man’s spare moments.”

PostScript: Renaissance women and tomboys

A cursory glance through the biographies and monographs on aviatrices reveals that many of the women, independent in spirit and mind, excelled or at the very least endeavoured valiantly in many fields in addition to aviation. Harriet Quimby was a successful photo-journalist, film actress and pioneer screenwriter. Elsie Mackay was a British silent film actress as well as an interior decorator. Mary Heath (né Peirce-Evans) was Britain’s women’s javelin champion and a world-class high jumper before gaining a commercial pilot’s licence and flying solo from Cape Town to Cairo[16].

Frenchwomen Marie Marvingt, before going on to set aviation records for endurance and distance, was a world-class, all-round athlete (including in officially completing the arduous Tour de France) and a skilled alpine mountaineer. Lilian Bland, after her flying career came to an abrupt halt, turned her talents to the relatively new motor car phenomena, starting Ireland’s first Ford dealership (from Belfast).

Chinese-born Sui Fun (Katherine) Cheung was a music graduate from USC and a mother of two before she decided to earn her licence and then enthusiastically pursued a career in commercial flying. The Hon. Mrs Victor Bruce raised eyebrows with her ‘indulgence’ in ‘un-ladylike’ activities – in addition to being the first woman to fly solo around the world, she immersed herself in the traditional ‘macho’ male pursuits of racing motor cars and powerboats.

Quite a number of prominent aviatrices especially from America were notable for their tomboy natures … some had grown up as tomboys on farms or in the country, messing about with livestock and engines and the like. Pilots such as Harriet Quimby, Blanche Scott, Viola Gentry and Pancho Barnes self-identified as tomboys. Gentry and Barnes were instinctively rebellious in their behaviour … the outrageously extroverted and controversial Barnes dressed like a man (wearing breeches mostly, especially when flying) and exhibited traits that were identified exoterically in her day as distinctly masculine – cigar-smoking, swearing, being generally loud and raucous … but she could back it up with real flying ability.

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❈ an idea of how much even famous aviatrices were perpetually in the shadow of their male counterparts is given in Earhart’s nickname, “Lady Lindy” – a reference to the aviation hero Lindbergh. Mary Heath when she achieved aviatrix star-power in the UK and Ireland in the 1920s got tagged by the press with the same moniker!
✦ the Arkansan aviatrix had been previously (1929) winner of the inaugural US Women’s Air Derby, dismissively tagged the “Powder Puff Derby” by humorist Will Rogers
❦ the star turn Australian aviatrix Lores Bonney recalled how apathetic Chas Kingsford Smith, the doyen of early Australasian aviation, was about helping her get a foothold in flying
❀ Floridian Jacqueline Cochran was one such aviatrix who overcame modest origins to make a career out of her love of flying, at the same time managing to break more speed, distance and altitude records than any other pilot of either sex (JM Jenkins, ‘Top 10 Pioneering Women of Aviation’, (Listverse), 08-Oct-2012, www.listverse.com)

[1] JB Bower, North Carolina Aviatrix Viola Gentry: The Flying Cashier, (2015)
[5] ‘Amelia Earhart Quotes’, www.thoughtco.com
[6] Amber Dzelzkalns, ‘From Barnstormers to Military Pilots: The Women Airforce Service Pilots of World War II’, (Unpub. thesis 2009, University of Wisconsin), www.minds.wisconsin.edu. Conveniently disregarding the reported numbers of male aviators who also had become fatalities in airplane crashes.
[7] ‘Powder Puff Derby’ (History of Air Racing and Record Breaking), www.air-racing-history.com/powderpuffderby.htm
[8] A Hodgman & R Djabbaroff, Skystars: The History of Women in Aviation (1981)
[9] Mitchell, loc.cit.
[10] ‘Ruth Law lands here from Chicago in record time’, NYT, 21-Nov-1916, quoted in BH Skelley, ‘Ruth Law – Queen of the Air: Challenging Stereotypes and Inspiring a Nation’, www.ninety-nines.org
[11] M Hickman, ’10 famous female aviators’, (MNN Galleries), 24-Apr-2017, www.mnn.com
[12] ‘Famous Record Breaking and Racing Pilots: Bessie Coleman’, www.air-racing-history.com/pilots.htm
[13] 38 of the WASPs lost their lives during the war, unrecognised and uncompensated by the US military or political hierarchy, Dzelzkalns, op.cit.
[14] ibid.
[15] P Marshall, ‘Neta Snook’, Aviation History, 17(3), January 2007
[16] D Blake, Daughters of Ireland: Pioneering Irish Women (2015)