the most unfortunate result is that such emphasis sometimes directly affects chances for flying jobs. I had one manufacturer tell me that he couldn’t risk hiring women pilots because of the way accidents, even minor ones, were played up in the newspapers.
“A man can damage a plane and hardly a word be said,” he explained, “but that doesn’t apply when sister stubs her toe. I don’t want my products advertised by a nose-over or a forced landing. But don’t misunderstand me,” he hastened to add. “I don’t mean women have more accidents than men.”
With flippant inaccuracy the magazine Time referred to my Texas episode under the caption (as I remember it) “First Autogiro Crackup.”
And so it goes.
There is another point to be mentioned in connection with women and accidents. That is, everyone should realize there will be an inevitable increase in the number of casualties involving women. I do not mean the proportion of accidents to the number of pilots will increase, but only that as more and more women enter into aviation, the number of accidents may be expected to keep pace.
What the comparative accident rate between feminine and masculine pilots is, or will be, I do not know. There are some reasons for saying that women for a time, owing to lack of experience, may have more. A likely example of why I say so is afforded in certain changes in flying conditions
