Amelia Earhart Role Model

Facing gender barriers, female aviators served as role models to women wanting to enter what was considered a “man’s task.” “In 1784, Elisabeth Thible flew over the French countryside” (The) on a flying balloon. She was the first woman in history to ever take the air. Shortly after the airplane was invented in the early 1900’s, another French woman named Elise Deroche was the first to fly an airplane (The). Following these footsteps, Blanche Scott was the first American woman to fly solo in an airplane (The). Many other young women followed in these footsteps including Amelia Earhart, the world renowned American female aviator, who realized her love for flying and followed the path to become one of the world’s best female aviators. All

these women had one common goal, they wanted to prove that women could be aviators just like men. Being one of the first female aviators as well as a women's rights activist in the early twentieth century, Amelia Earhart served as an international treasure to many aspiring female aviators.
Amelia Earhart’s exposure to many air shows during her early life paved the way for her to become an aviator. Amelia Mary Earhart was born on July 24 1897 in Atchison, Kansas (Amelia). Growing up, Earhart had a tomboyish personality which made her have different interests from other girls (Ware). Due to her grandparents’ wealth, Amelia received a good education as she attended a private school (Amelia). During her youth, Amelia’s parents separated, but her father would take her to airshows every summer which sparked her interest in aviation (Backus). After graduating high school, Earhart moved to Toronto, Canada to work as a volunteer nurse during the first world war (Backus). During her time in Toronto, Earhart continued to attend air shows and increased her interest in aviation (Backus). After the war ended, Amelia returned to the United States and took classes at Columbia University without fully enrolling in college (Ware). After a year of school, Amelia Earhart began taking lessons from Neta Snooks, who was the first woman to graduate from college in aviation (Ware). After learning to fly, Earhart took up many jobs while she continued aviation as a hobby (Amelia). In 1928, she was offered to join a crew of pilots and fly across the Atlantic Ocean, making her the first woman to fly with a crew across the Atlantic. (Backus). Amelia Earhart’s childhood and early adulthood allowed her to develop an interest for aviation, develop it into a hobby and eventually a profession.
Being the first woman recruited to fly across the Atlantic made Amelia Earhart an inspiration to women during the suffrage movement (Butler).

Shortly after this trip, Earhart began taking up aviation as a profession instead of a hobby. As soon as she began her new found profession, Earhart set many records (Backus). She was the first woman to fly an autogiro across the country and to fly solo from California to Mexico and from Hawaii to California (Amelia). She was also the first woman to fly solo transcontinental and a year later broke her own record (Amelia). Getting so many records led to her being respected even though she was a woman. Breaking all of these records led to a new found fame and it allowed her to serve as an icon for the women's’ movement. Amelia also stated “the more women fly, the more who become pilots, the more we become recognized” (Backus). Saying this quote, she wanted to inspire other female pilots who were being discriminated because of their gender and also joined the women's suffrage movement (Butler). She joined the Ninety-Nines, which were a womans’ flying organization that inspired young women to fly during the late 1920’s (Butler). She proved to these women that she was going to be the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic which led to her receiving many

achievements.
Even though she was a woman, Earhart still fought her way in a field that had a lot of gender barriers and was still able to gain recognition internationally. After developing aviation in 1931, Amelia Earhart had already broken many records. She had already received many promotions and was already well known (Amelia). Earhart married George Putnam in February 1931 and the two pursued their aviation careers together (Amelia). Amelia Earhart had broken many records and was the first woman who broke many of them (Amelia). Earhart had also earned many awards and recognitions for breaking all of these records (Backus). She was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (Amelia), which as a woman in the suffrage era was a really huge honor. Many governments also recognized Earhart’s well deserved achievements which earned her a “Cross of the Knight of the Legion of Honor from the French government” (Amelia) and recognition from the American president (Backus). She earned other awards such as the “Gold Medal in the National Geographic Society and the Harmon Trophy as America’s most outstanding woman” (Amelia) which she won four years consecutively. After Amelia Earhart broke many records, “more women began getting into aircrafts” (Butler). Receiving all of these recognitions showed how important Amelia Earhart was to women.
After breaking many records, Earhart’s decision to fly solo across the Atlantic led to her being an icon in the women's’ suffrage movement. The reason for this is that earlier, Earhart wanted to be credited with flying solo rather than just being present in the aircraft (Backus). During this time, the publicity made Amelia Earhart look bad as she was described as a “puppet created by her publicist husband” (Amelia). As ambitious as she was, Earhart ignored this and went on to prove herself capable of doing this. She “piloted a tiny single engined figure” (Amelia) and took off into the atlantic. The first few hours of the flight went well until Earhart began facing many challenges “such as poor weather conditions and snow collecting on her wings” (Blackus). Earhart landed in Ireland instead of in France as planned but accomplished something that no other woman during this time did, flew across the atlantic solo. Earhart was only the second person to accomplish this and the first woman which made her regain her positive fame and was once again seen as a role model rather than just a celebrity. Women from all over the country gathered to celebrate Earhart as an icon to the suffrage movement.
Earhart’s final task which was circumnavigating the globe led to her disappearance, however it allowed her to develop an aviation legacy that would last forever. After gaining fame from her most famous event which was the Atlantic Solo flight, Earhart wanted to circumnavigate the globe, a much greater task. No pilot had ever accomplished this before (Amelia) and this would make her not only the first female pilot but the first pilot ever to accomplish this. “Purdue University purchased a new twin head lockheed electra” (Amelia) which allowed her to attempt this. She left from San Francisco on March 17 (Amelia). This attempt turned out to be a failure (Letters to Amelia), however, Earhart decided to do a second attempt at circumnavigating the globe. During this expedition, Amelia Earhart disappeared with her last words being sent from a radio message (Backus). The disappearance of Amelia Earhart still remains a mystery to this day (Ware). Even though, Earhart was a very excellent aviator, she still is renowned by women and aviators as an international treasure.
Amelia Earhart proved to the world that women could accomplish as much as men in the feild of aviation. Earhart’s attempt to circumnavigate the world inspired another female aviator named Linda Finch who finished Earhart’s unfinished attempt to fly around the world as a tribute to Earhart (Amelia). Earhart’s legacy still lives on as she inspired many other young women to become aviators or even astronauts (The) in more modern times.