Amelia Earhart - Inspiring woman

After I read the story of Amelia, I thought how she was treated in the society. It is no doubt that the accomplishment she made was surely great. Was she outstanding female icon or a woman who was out of ordinary?


Here I’d like to introduce Paula Gunn Allen, the Native American feminist/activist. While I read Amelia I thought she was like “Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday.” She didn’t act like women from a very old-fashioned point of view with bias. She was independent, natural, active, and sometimes reckless. I like the way she lived but I assume some people might not like it at that time. She risked her life with excitement while others became caregivers.

Paula gives us interesting ways of seeing "self." In her novels, she states that the idealization of a group is a consequence of separation from “the group.” Although Amelia became famous because of her courageous successes, she might be treated as the one out of “ordinary” since many women could not even try. Paula also mentions that in finding self, it is essential for humans to belong to a tradition and to understand the world. Did Amelia grew up in the traditional family and did she know how ordinary people live? I think she did.

Paula affected women’s perspective of how the self can be. Women in the past and present fight against the cultural role models, bias, and stereotypes. I believe that Amelia and Paula taught us how you act is what you are, and that is who you choose to be in the society. Would you like to live like Amelia or stick to the typical and ordinary life of business person? Both are normal, good and right.

After reading - Amelia Earhart

Inspiring woman

I write about Malala Yousafzai as a woman who is the one I was inspired.  She was ranked second as woman who was respected in the world following Angelina Jolie.

She was born in Pakistan in 1997.  Her father ran a women’s school and she studied there to become a doctor.  In the meantime, Taliban started conducting a region of terror in 2007.  They deprived women of their right to take education and sought the life of women who tried to take education or pushed ahead with the action.  Malala criticized those activities by Taliban and continued to emphasize the need of women’s education and the peace.  When she was a junior high school student, she was attacked by Taliban and seriously injured.  She miraculously recovered and was released from a hospital after two and a half months.

Six months later, she made a speech at the United Nations headquarters and insisted on the importance of education.  In 2014, she got Nobel Peace Prize.  At that time, she was seventeen and the youngest person who got the prize.  She said that it was start, not end.

I am very inspired by her extraordinary bravery and hope the chance of taking education is given to everyone in the world.

Amelia Earhart - missing, presumed dead

Amelia R.I.P.

Beginning approximately one hour after Earhart's last recorded message, the USCGC Itasca took a search north and west of Howland Island. The United States Navy soon joined the search and over a period of about three days sent available resources to the search area in the vicinity of Howland Island.

The official search efforts lasted until July 19, 1937. At $4 million, the air and sea search by the Navy and Coast Guard was the most costly and intensive in U.S. history. But search and rescue techniques during the era were introductory and some of the search was based on erroneous assumptions.
Despite an unprecedented search by the United States Navy and Coast Guard no physical evidence of Earhart, Noonan or the Electra 10E was found.

In late July 1937, Putnam chartered two small boats and while he remained in the United States, directed a search of the Phoenix Islands, Christmas Island, Fanning Island, the Gilbert Islands and the Marshall Islands, but no trace of the Electra or its occupants was found.

Back in the United States, Putnam acted to become the trustee of Earhart's estate so that he could pay for the searches and related bills. In a court in Los Angeles, Putnam requested to have the "declared death in absentia" seven-year waiting period waived so that he could manage Earhart's finances. As a result, Earhart was declared legally dead on January 5, 1939.

Amelia Earhart and her airplanes

Planes

 

One of Amelia’s air planes was Lockheed 5B Vega.

It was called little red bus. It was vivid red, and had a single seat.

In 1932, she used it for her famous flight and made a record.

She flew alone over the Atlantic Ocean back and forth without any recess. It was the first record for woman.

The Lockheed 5B Vega was sold into the market in 1927. The designer was Jack Northrop and Allan Loughead. It was first product made by them for Lockheed Aircraft Company. Lockheed 5B Vega was sharp shape and fast. It soon became popular among pilots.

She repaired the little red bus because of an accident. The fuselage was replaced and strengthened in order to carry extra fuel tanks.

It mounted three types of compasses, a drift indicator and a more powerful engine. She accomplished the Atlantic Ocean flight with the modified little red bus.

She sold it to Philadelphia’s Franklin Institute. It’s presently displayed in Smithsonian museum.

Another air plane was the Model 10-E Electra. It’s also made by Lockheed Company. It was the best known aircraft, but disappeared in the Pacific in July, 1937 with Amelia Earhart and her flight assistant, Fred Noonan on the half way to achieve world record flight.

Posted by Reiko on behalf of Yumi