Second to None: Inspiring stories of Extraordinary Women

by Barb Garwood, American Airlines Pilot and one of WMA Founders

“Second to None” is a documentary produced by Farmers Insurance for March’s Women’s History Month with six 15 minute episodes about significant achievements women have accomplished in our country despite major obstacles.

The series is designed for use in elementary, middle and high schools.

Through American Airlines pilot Jenny Beatty, who was flying a B-737 carrying writer and director Randy Rice, I was contacted to participate in the sixth episode on women in aviation featuring one of our WMA members, WASP Violet (Vi) Cowden.

Vi, 94 years old, tells her story about why she became a pilot as a young woman.

After the Dec. 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, she submitted her application to Washington DC to serve and received the call later from Jacqueline Cochran that she was accepted into the Women AirForce Service Pilot program (WASP).

Graduating in WASP Class 43-W-4, Vi went on to fly pursuit aircraft, including the P-51 Mustang (the fastest aircraft at the time), the P-39, P-40, P-47 and P-63 aircraft.

Pioneers such as Vi proved women could fly military aircraft and their service to our country was finally recognized by receiving veteran status in 1979 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2010.

My role in the episode was to tie the pioneer achievements of the WASP during 1942-1944 to the very tough struggle during the next 30 years in getting women back into the cockpits of military aircraft in the 1970’s.

When I joined the Air Force in 1975, all doors for women as pilots or navigators were closed, even though the Navy and Coast Guard had started training women pilots in 1973 and the Army started training women pilots in 1974. The Air Force opened pilot training to women in 1976.

Opening weapons systems in all services would take until 1993 when Congress rescinded the combat exemption laws keeping women out of over 250,000 combat related military jobs.

Part of WMA’s history involved fighting for this change.

As fascinating as the history of women in aviation is, the other five episodes of “Second to None” relate American women’s fight for the right to vote, Title IX and Education, Sports career equality, Politics and Civil Rights, and Business and Entrepreneurship.

All episodes contain amazing interviews and historical stories of past and present women who have met obstacles in their lives and were able to overcome tremendous resistance from men, society and other barriers.

For more information go to www.gofarmersed.com.