15. Amelia Earhart was a pioneering feminist in the 1960s vein
Amelia Earhart is remembered as a pioneering aviatrix, who captured the hearts of people around the globe with her achievements in the air. She was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic solo, though her flight was considerably shorter than Charles Lindbergh’s of five years earlier. Lindbergh had flown from Long Island to Paris, Earhart’s flight was from Newfoundland to Ireland. Already a celebrity when she made the flight, the achievement cemented her international fame. In 1935 Earhart became the first aviator of either sex to fly from Hawaii (Honolulu) to California. She wrote both books and articles about her experiences in the air and on other topics, including the one for which she would be known were it not for her flights, feminism.
When Earhart vanished on her Around the World flight in 1937 she triggered a search which, though interrupted by World War II, continues to the present day. The mystery of what happened to her has overshadowed her advocacy for feminist issues. When she married George Putnam, of the publishing family, she insisted, in writing, on open marriage and equal responsibilities for husband and wife. She retained her own name following the marriage, an unusual circumstance for the day, rather than becoming Amelia Earhart Putnam. Earhart considered her marriage to Putnam as a “partnership” with both partners holding the same rights as well as the same obligations. Had Earhart completed her flight or been rescued following her disappearance in the Pacific she would likely be remembered today as much for her feminist views as for her flying achievements.