Amilia Earhart

In her short life, Amelia Earhart became a ground-breaking female aviator, becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, whose international fame improved public acceptance of aviation and paved the way for other women in commercial flight.

Amelia Mary Earhart was born on July 24, 1897, in Atchison, Kansas to Amy Otis Earhart and Edwin Stanton Earhart. She was the oldest of two daughters. Her father came from humble beginnings and worked as an attorney, while her mother was from a more socially prestigious family that prioritized education. Earhart’s mother had an adventurous spirit herself, once solo climbing a Colorado mountain in her youth. She raised her daughters in an unorthodox manner for the time period, letting them wear bloomers instead of skirts and encouraging them to play sports. The family moved from Kansas to Iowa to Minnesota to Illinois, where Earhart graduated from high school.

In a society in which women were expected to prioritize marriage and children over all else, Amelia Earhart wanted to work and live for herself. However, her options were limited. During World War I, she left college to work at a Canadian military hospital. However, she had other passions: aviation (National Geographic).

After the war, Earhart completed one semester at Columbia University, and another at the University of Southern California. Earhart’s attention shifted to aviation when she saw an “air rodeo” in California in 1920. The day following the event, she was a passenger in a 10-minute flight through which she realized her true passion for flying. She urged her parents to let her pursue this passion and began flying lessons with one of the rare female aviators of the time, Neta Snook. On her twenty-fifth birthday, Earhart purchased a Kinner Airster biplane, and in 1922 she set the women’s altitude record of 14,000 feet. With faltering family finances, she sold the plane in 1923. She was licensed by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, the International Aviation Federation, and was the 16th woman to gain that honor (National Geographic). When her parents divorced in 1924, Earhart moved with her mother and sister to Massachusetts and became a settlement worker at Dennison House in Boston, while also flying in air shows.

Earhart often advocated for women’s rights, especially in her involvement in the National Woman’s Party. She was a prominent advocate for the Lucretia Mott Amendment, which would become the Equal Rights Amendment, speaking at large public venues and bending the president’s ear on occasion as she was able to (Ms.). She had friends at the height of society due to her fame, especially First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The two bonded on their support of women’s advancing roles, and Earhart even once left a dinner at the White House to take a midnight flight with Roosevelt (Smithsonian). 

Earhart paid particular attention to uplifting other women coming up in the aviation field, often inspired by her image. In 1929, she helped to organize the All-Women's Air Derby, which was the first transcontinental air race for women. That same year, encouraged by the public attention for the air derby, Earhart helped found the Ninety-Nines, an organization of female aviators (Smithsonian). Earhart often publicly supported women’s entry to aviation, often speaking against the prejudice against women in the field and their lack of opportunity to train as pilots.

“Women can qualify in the air as in any other sport. Their influence and approval are vital to the success of. commercial aviation. Women and girls write to me by the thousands to learn the truth about aviation and what women’s-chances are. There is nothing in woman’s make-up which would make her inferior to a man as an air pilot. The only barrier to her swift success is her lack of opportunity to receive proper training.”