Lyceum & Book Club - Week 34 - Early Space Program - part two
- Aug 18, 2022
- 6 min read
Updated: Dec 24, 2022
Now let us read a few newspaper articles from the event of the All-Woman Air Show of 1947. As we have seen previously, women would be included in events and then suddenly, the power that be would decide they should be excluded and each time, women would work to find another path in which they would succeed and then be included again, and so the cycle of inclusion and exclusion continues, inching forward.
After the war ended air shows started back in 1946 and included women (whether against women or in a women only category, I don’t know). But the next year in 1947, suddenly women are barred from participating in the show.
Listen to the anger / determination) you hear in the voices of these women in these articles.
Mrs. Gladys Pennington, chairman of the “rebound” all-women’s air meet scheduled for March 15 and 16 in Tampa, declared organizations of women fliers “are pretty mad about this.” She pledged, “and don’t think we’re through with it.”
When Mrs. James B. Davidson, Federation president, turned the meeting over to the “M.C.,” Mrs. McCaffrey commented pertly: “When we started these brunches honoring the women fliers (in 1938) it was because we were asked to do it (by the men). The men wanted us to entertain them and bid them welcome. I seem to remember, too, that the first year the Federation sold tickets to the maneuvers was the first year the show got out of the red!”
But I want to note that there is an undertone of something else going on here between these women in the various groups, that we have no insider records to know the story behind the comments. I suspect that there was the age old divide on how to proceed to achieve change - confrontation vs conciliation / working from without to push for change or working from within to get the powers that be to allow some change.
“Next time,” she cautioned her air-minded audience, “don’t let this thing get away from you. If you’re having trouble, let us fight for you, because,” she promised, “we’ll do it!”
Conciliatory words were offered by CAA flight test examiner, Mrs. Verna Burke Craft, of Miami. As guest speaker, Mrs. Craft spoke resigned words, “The only way we can win the men over, is to take it on the chin, take their kidding and their uncooperative spirit. Not,” she admonished, “by seeking publicity, as some have, undeservedly. We don’t all appreciate that approach.
And yet all factions joined together in this endeavor and it was such a success in its goals, particularly the positive publicity it achieved, that the next year, the All-American Air Maneuvers was once again opened to women. The women held a second All-Woman Air Show the next year, but I could not find out how long it continued and when it stopped.
What we do hear about the Woman’s Powder Puff Derby event might offer us a clue. Eventually sponsorship funds dwindled and that race was discontinued. And that emphasizes that one of the biggest obstacles women faced is lack of funding from corporations, even while those same corporations funded events that featured only men flying.
Which brought it back once again to women as individuals advancing, but not as a whole group. And note this - for some women, that scenario worked to their advantage. Once a field is opened up to all members of a non-dominant population, those few who had achieved singular success will find themselves and their accomplishments surpassed as time goes on - the financial rewards, the power and influence they now leverage as a single individual who represents the whole group gets diluted. And yeah, even while they still "promote" advancement of the whole, you find them sitting in the dominant population tent agreeing with the reasons that non-dominant population should be restrained for a little while longer.
World War II was an inflection point for women to enter aviation and gain a parity with men and when that did not happen, you find years later when there is a shortage of pilots, whether that is in commercial airlines or military needs - you just don't find the interest level among women that you suddenly need to have to fulfill your objectives, because by now, women have given up on that pathway and have now found other pathways where they can achieve their own goals and find satisfaction without the constant obstacles.
Two last items I want to point out about the 1947 All-Woman Air Show. You will notice that Jacqueline Cochran is nowhere to be seen. This airshow did not feature any main "star" but instead showcased young up and coming women in aviation. The next year Cochran joined the U.S. Air Force Reserve as a lieutenant colonel and began flying the new jet airplanes. She comes into play later on when women are trying to be accepted as part of the new space program.
The second item I want to point out is that a lot of men in aviation were rooting for women to be included as equals. They just weren't the ones who held power positions. If the military or the heads of those men in the aviation industry had promoted women as equal participants in those fields, the majority of the male population would have learned to adjust and the vast majority of the public would have enthusiastically worked toward that end. In a generation or two, the notion of women as equals in the military and aviation industry would have been an accepted norm with the rough edges worn smooth. Without a buy-in from the dominant population leaders who hold power coming to see that it is in their best interests to take up the cause, no matter how much the entire non-dominant population works in solidarity toward a goal, they will not achieve permanent forward motion beyond incremental change (which is still a good goal to work to achieve).
Also note that the women made sure to court and include every male aviation organization and aviation manufacturer. Belonging to a sector of the non-dominant population automatically means you have to court the good graces of the dominant power structure if you want to achieve anything. You can not afford to exclude or take a confrontational approach in regard to the dominant population who holds all of the power cards. When someone says a non-dominant population sector shouldn't be confrontational, what they really mean is the non-dominant sector should not rock the boat and ask for an equal portion of the seat on the boat, but accept their subordinate position of whatever portion of the seat the dominant seat mate is willing to give you.
I want to also put in here as an aside, that in order for a movement of change to be successful, you need all of those factions within a movement, even when there is tension between them, in order to move the needle forward, even those individuals who divert forward movement to empowering only themselves - with this caveat, all factions of the non-dominant population has to be working toward the same central goal and the benefit that goes to a single player in the non-dominant population can not outweigh the benefit the group as a whole accrue.
So here is a last article. If those who hold the strings of power had made the decision after WW2 to ride the momentum of women in the military and aviation, 70 years later, we would have a strong pool of commercial and military pilots today to draw from.
Women Remain a Small Percentage of Commercial and Military Pilots
"Historically, airlines hired the bulk of their pilots from the military. It wasn't as steep a learning curve to move from a military aircraft into the cockpit of a commercial plane.
And the military itself doesn't have enough pilots — a Department of Defense report from 2019 says the Air Force has seen shortfalls since 2006, and the service said it was short more than 1,500 pilots at the end of 2016 — "with the deficit expected to grow." By the end of the 2019 fiscal year, it had — to a deficit of 2,100 pilots, according to written testimony submitted to Congress in 2020.
There isn't a quick fix. You can't just hire someone, have them kick the tires and sit in the left seat. Prospective pilots generally need to earn a bachelor's degree and get training from a Federal Aviation Administration-approved program, then get a private pilot's license — which involves passing both written and practical tests — and then earn an instrument rating. Becoming certified as a commercial pilot by the FAA requires 250 total flight hours — but individual airlines might require 1,000 or 2,000 hours, the FAA says.
Scott Kirby, United CEO has run the numbers and estimates there are just not enough pilots for the next five years.
Remember when we started off this lecture and we said the situation the space program faced was like a parent that wanted to keep their child interested in someday learning how to cook and sharing the kitchen, but not right now because the parent didn't need the headache at the moment?
Yeah, well, the kids found that other path and now when the parent finds that they need the child to help with the cooking, the kids have no interest.
When historical inflections happen, you grab hold of the opportunity that momentum for change provides. It's a hardship at the time making that change, but it saves a lot of heartache for society later on.
Let's now turn to the military where it all starts with aviation if women were to gain entry into the space program.
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Book to Read:
Continue reading "The Martian Way" by Asimov - 1955 - 222 pgs
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