A Woman's Place is in the Air

As I pointed out here, ballooning and passive flight are about persistence, being and nurturing, and not about brute force, loud noise and speed. The former are conventionally construed as women's values, the latter, men's values.

So it is nice to stumble upon an article on women's role in early flight. These women are mentioned:

• Sophie Blanchard, took over the balloon business from her husband's Jean-Pierre
  
• Andre Garnerin's niece
• Dolly Shepherd, a star of Buffalo Bill Cody's show
• Queen Margherita of Italy founded the Roman Aero Club in 1904, and Contessa Grace di Campello Della Spina was an enthusiastic member, calling ballooning the "sport of the gods."
• Mrs. Hart Berg, first woman passenger on a Wright Bros. plane
• Airplane pilots Blanche Scott, Bessica Raiche, Julia Clark, Harriet Quimby, Katherine Stinson, Bessie Coleman, Beryl Markham..

This is from "Women in Flight," a talk given January 20, 1999, by John H. Lienhard, Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Houston. jhl at uh.edu.