when once they do venture forth. It also makes men unwilling to recognize women’s abilities. Consequently they sometimes feel that they must do foolhardy or silly things just to prove they can.
There are 472 licensed women pilots in the United States. Of these about fifty hold the transport or highest grade. 472 seems a large number when it is remembered there were but twelve women licensees in January, 1929. However, it shrinks to a proportion of about 1 to 37 in the face of the entire pilots listing (men and women) which is 17,226 strong (October, 1931). Taking into consideration only the 50 transport licenses, for none other can really be counted as offering commercial possibilities, the number of potential candidates among women for available jobs, if any, is exceedingly small.
Despite these figures, there are more women flyers in the United States than in all the rest of the world, and it follows more in commercial aviation. Further, it appears they do more together in this country than anywhere else. They not only compete in exclusive racing events, but have recently conducted several entire air meets by themselves. Besides organizations composed of women interested in aviation generally, there are some for women pilots only. Oldest among these is the Ninety-Nines, open to any woman holding a current Department of Commerce license. Another is the Betsy Ross Corps, established to train picked
