They also flew: Women aviators in Tennessee, 1922-1950.

Abstract

The decades of the 1920s through the 1940s were a time of tremendous growth for the aviation industry. Women, such as Amelia Earhart, helped to promote that growth; a fact that on the surface challenged the traditional view of women's place in society. But the careers of less famous women who flew in Tennessee, which had the reputation of being a state progressive in aviation, show women's opportunities in the field were limited to specific gender-defined areas.

This conclusion was reached after consulting the records and publications of the Tennessee Bureau of Aeronautics, newspaper and magazine articles, and the personal scrapbooks of women who flew in Tennessee between 1922 and 1950. Interviews with the women used as examples, or with their families, also contributed to the findings.