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4

U.S Women in Aviation through World War I
Claudia M. Oakes

Introduction

"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? It would seem that a woman's success in any particular line would prove her fitness for that work, without regard to theories to the controversy."
(Law, 1918:250)

This statement made by the famous aviatrix Ruth Law in 1918 is still so pertinent for women today. 

Women have definitely made progress through the years in aviation in the United States. The military is now admitting women to pilot training, though principally for cargo aircraft and helicopters. The U.S Navy has a female pilot who flies a combat-type aircraft, an LTV A-7 fighter, but she is assigned to a non-combat land-based utility squadron, an it is doubtful that women would be allowed to fly in combat should another armed conflict arise. In the field of commercial aviation, progress is very noticeable. According to a survey by Frontier Airline, as of February 1977 there were eighteen women flying for regularly scheduled airlines in the U.S. Five of these women were first

Claudia M. Oakes, Department of Aeronautics, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C 205660.