Linda McKenney, March 10, 2023
Close your eyes and imagine you are about to board an airplane. What does the pilot look like?
Many of us were impressed and excited about an all-woman flyover at the Super Bowl. It’s progress!! Since it’s Women's History month, I thought it would be interesting to find out the nitty-gritty of said progress. I was also inspired by the comments of a friend. So, I did a little digging.
The Super Bowl event was celebrating the 50-year history of women being allowed to fly in the Navy. But the Navy’s original lineup was, according to Military.com, fifteen aviators -- only three of whom were women who were not pilots but flight officers (NFO). NFOs are experts in aircraft engine systems, navigation, meteorology, aerodynamics, flight planning and aircraft safety. They may serve as a co-pilot on occasion.
The crew was announced in a press release on Jan. 27, 2023. And yes, if you click on this link, you will find a 404 error message. Why? Apparently the announcement was initial information on the aircrew that was made public before the Navy had settled on the final lineup. So let’s make believe that an all-woman team was always the plan.
Google after Google, I could not determine why the Navy changed its mind and made the crew entirely women, except for the problem of a shortage of female Navy pilots.
A spokesperson for the commander of Naval Air Forces explained why having an all-female squadron would be difficult. "There are several challenges involved in gathering aviators from several different squadrons, and with women as 20% of the population in the Navy, it makes it harder, [especially because] only between 7% and 12% are pilots.”
But then, women who wanted to be Navy pilots or pilots in general have been facing challenges for years.
Bessie Coleman read about the air war in Europe during World War I and was convinced she should be up there flying, not just reading about it. In her attempt to find a flight school, she had two strikes against her. She was a woman, and she was black.
She heard that Europe had a more liberal attitude toward women and people of color, so she learned to speak French and earned enough money to go to Paris. She received her pilot’s license on June 15, 1921 from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. But she could not fly for the military, as military service in the US was not permitted for women.
In 1942, years after her death, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Navy Women’s Reserve Act into law, creating what was commonly known as the WAVES -- Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service -- a division of the U.S. Navy, created to free up male personnel for sea duty in World War II. These women served as nurses or clerical workers. But there was a bigger need that women voluntarily filled.
The W.A.S.P. flew in. (Women’s Airforce Service Pilots)
The attack on Pearl Harbor meant that male pilots were needed for combat, which left a shortage of pilots to deliver newly built trainer aircraft to flight schools. Twenty-eight experienced civilian women pilots volunteered to take those ferrying jobs, forming the country’s first female flight squadron. That number grew to 1,074 women pilots.
Between November 1942 and December 1944, these women were trained to fly every aircraft in the Army’s arsenal. In addition to ferrying, they towed gunnery targets, transported equipment and non-flying personnel, and flight-tested aircraft that had been repaired before the men were allowed to fly them again. For over two years, the WASP went on to perform a wide variety of aviation-related jobs and to serve at more than 120 bases around the country.
What happened to the WASP?
In March 1944, a Congressional Bill was introduced to change the WASP status from civilian to military. This militarization bill was defeated in June and by December the program was officially deactivated. WASP lost their wings.
Through the 1980s and early 1990s, women lobbied hard for the right to serve equally with male counterparts, including flight combat. But even after they succeeded in 1993, there remained few corners of the military as overtly macho, if not downright misogynistic, as the world of fighter pilots.
Misogyny affects not only the way men think about women pilots, but also the way women think about the career opportunities available to them. If young women can’t dream of becoming a pilot – through role models in industry, or in their own minds – they’re less likely to pursue that career. Sadly, there are few examples of successful women pilots throughout the aviation industry. Which leads to the result of the following exercise:
Close your eyes and imagine you are about to board an airplane. What does the pilot look like?