4. Earhart and Putnam turned her celebrity into money
The press frenzy and savvy marketing by Putnam kept Earhart in the public eye as the Roaring Twenties roared toward the stock market crash which brought them to an end. She worked tirelessly to promote herself, and in so doing promote aviation. The money raised by her books, articles, lectures, and endorsements funded her flying. She also served as a vice-president of National Airways and promoted commercial airlines and passenger aviation. At the end of the summer, of 1928, she flew across the United States and back, the first woman to do so. The newsreels and press dutifully reported her achievements. She began to participate in competitive events, including cross-country flying races, expanding her reputation.
Earhart joined the National Aeronautic Association in 1930, where she argued for the establishment of separate record categories for men and women flyers. Her position regarding the recording of achievements separately contradicted her feminist views, which she openly expressed at the time. She further expressed them with her marriage to George Putnam, in 1931. Earhart called her marriage a partnership, expressed no need to “hold you to a medieval code of faithfulness” to her new husband, and explained she would not be so bound either. She continued to use her maiden name following the marriage, an unusual practice at the time which sent society’s tongues wagging.