Ruth Seeger receives a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship to study music and composing in Europe; she becomes an extraordinary classical composer and folk music activist.
Writer, pilot and navigator Anne Morrow Lindbergh is the first woman to gain a glider pilot’s license. Later she is the first woman to receive the National Geographic Society’s Hubbard Gold Medal for her part in the development of aviation routes. The theme of one of her inspirational books, Gift from the Sea, is the need for women to take the time to reflect and be alone.
Historian Edith Hamilton publishes The Greek Way, a book that is both a critical and a popular success.
Two million women—a fifth of the female labor force—are office workers.
A singer and actress with a booming voice, Ethel Merman opens in Girl Crazy with the hit song “I’ve Got Rhythm.”
Katharine Cornell is a famous stage actress who founds her own production company and breaks with tradition when she takes first-string casts on successful road tours. She shares, along with Helen Hayes and Lynn Fontanne, claim to the title “First Lady of the American Theater.”
Cherokee Ruth Muskrat Bronson is named the first guidance and placement officer of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Screenwriter Frances Marion wins her first Oscar. She is the highest-paid screenwriter for over two decades.
Ellen Church (left), a trained nurse, becomes the first airline stewardess.
Lillian Gilbreth, cofounder of the field of industrial engineering, receives a medal from the Society of Industrial Engineers for her time studies. Referred to as the “First Lady of Engineering,” she also is considered to be a pioneer in industrial and organizational psychology. She has twelve children, and their family experiences contribute to her theories of time and motion.
On May 20–21, pilot Amelia Earhart is the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She says: “Please know that I am aware of the hazards. I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be a challenge to others.”
Ruth Nichols is the first woman commercial airline pilot.