19. Amelia Earhart
The famed aviatrix Amelia Earhart vanished while attempting to fly around the world in 1937. The mysterious disappearance ensured her lasting fame. During her lifetime she was much more than a trailblazing female pilot. Earhart rivaled the emerging celebrities from Hollywood as an endorser of products, creating her own lines of clothing and accessories marketed through Macy’s. She lectured and appeared on radio broadcasts, promoting aviation and women’s roles in it and in society. Her celebrity and achievements in aviation made her an inspiration to a generation of girls and young women, who emulated her appearance, her ambition, and her feminist views.
Earhart’s promotion of aviation led to feminine roles in aviation which otherwise would not have been widely available. Her acceptance by political leaders and figures on both sides of the Atlantic, all of them anxious to exploit her fame, gave a boost to supporters of greater freedom of opportunity for women. Since her death, entire industries sprang into existence focused on solving the mystery of her disappearance. Just a few short years after her disappearance, thousands of women trained as pilots and served during World War II, ferrying aircraft, serving as transport pilots, and performing other roles which freed male pilots for duty in the theaters of war.