Amelia Earhart Fellowships Encourage Women To Study Aerospace Science

As the science professions face a future marked by a widely predicted personnel shortage, attention has focused on the relative scarcity of women who choose technical fields as a vocation. An example of the recent upsurge of interest in this problem is the scheduling of a plenary talk on the subject at this week's meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (see story on page 1). One area of science that has been particularly slow in attracting women is aerospace, a field that "tends to be not as progressive in terms of women and their advancement" as other scientific disciplines, according to Sharon Langenbeck, division manager, advanced metals and ceramics, at Lockheed Corp.'s Burbank, Calif., facility. Among her co-workers, she says, "there are very, very few women at the Ph.D. level." A woman who did manage to achieve a high level of success in the aerospace industry's precursor - aeronautics - was Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly the Atlantic alone. Earhart, whose plane disappeared in the South Seas in 1937, has also been receiving considerable attention in the past six months. The renewed interest in the life of the aviation pioneer stems from the recent publication of two biographies: The Sound of Wings, by Mary S. Lovell (New York, St. Martin's, 1989), and Amelia Earhart: A Biography, by Doris L. Rich (Washington, Smithsonian Institution, 1989). An early advocate of women's rights, Earhart advised female students at Purdue University in 1935 to work in the field of their choice "even if you find that you are the first woman to feel an urge in that direction." PERIOD AMOUNT OF EACH GRANT ($) TOTAL AWARDED($) 1940-46* 500 3,000 1948-52 1,000 7,000 1953-56 1,200 8,400 1957-58 1,800 10,800 1959-69 2,500 155,000 1970-75 3,000 222,000 1976-78 4,000 248,000 1979-84 5,000 800,000 1985-89 6,000 1,020,000 *No fellowships were awarded in 1942, 1944, 1945, and 1947. Zonta International, a service organization for business and professional women and the only nonflying association that Earhart joined voluntarily, voted to establish a scholarship fund in honor of its former member in 1938, one year after her disappearance. Originally, awards were given to female students doing graduate work in aeronautics; at present, eligibility is limited to women pursuing master's or doctoral degrees in aerospace-related science or engineering. Since the first award was given in 1940, the program - now known as the Zonta Amelia Earhart Fellowship Awards - has grown from one scholarship of $500 to the 40 stipends of $6,000 apiece that were awarded in 1989 (see table). Zonta International, now headquartered in Chicago and represented by clubs in 52 countries, was founded in Buffalo in 1919 with the goal of helping to advance the status of both adult and younger women in society. The organization's officers realized that a concomitant of this aim was helping to promote women's "entry into nontraditional areas," says Rickie Jacobs, foundation manager at Zonta, and "the hard sciences were one area where women have been underrepresented." Langenbeck, who received an Amelia Earhart Fellowship in 1977-78 and 1978-79 and is now a member of the committee that selects recipients, says a major benefit of the program is that as the number of awardees expands, "there's a real network that can be established." Fellowship winners, she says, can serve as an example for other women who are considering careers in science, demonstrating that working in technical fields "is not a scary thing; you can be comfortable with it." To finance the award program, individual Zontians contribute to an Amelia Earhart Fellowship Fund, which is supplemented by gifts from other sources. Zontians' contributions are "totally voluntary," says Jacobs. "It's not an endowed fellowship." Although Zonta members fund the program, the fellowships are open to all female students in aerospace-related science, whether or not they are Zontians. The number of fellowships awarded depends on the amount of contributions to the fund; according to Jacobs, the total "has grown by two or three awards" each year. Also growing is the number of applications for the fellowships. In contrast to the early years of the program, when occasionally no award was given because of a lack of qualified applicants, the Amelia Earhart Fellowship Awards Committee now receives about 200 applications for the 40 awards, Jacobs says, a number that has increased "by approximately 20 a year." Notices inviting women to submit applications are posted at approximately 2,000 universities around the world, as well as at engineering firms, libraries, and other institutions. Lois Hoffer, a Ph.D. candidate studying ring lasers at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, says that if she had not received an Amelia Earhart Fellowship, she would have had to work as a teaching assistant, a job that requires a minimum of 20 hours per week, plus additional time to prepare lessons and fix students' equipment. "Since this is my last year, I want to concentrate all my energies on finishing," says Hoffer, who was awarded a fellowship for 1988-89 as well as 1989-90. Receiving the award "allows you to focus your time," concurs Langenbeck, who received her Ph.D. in mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of Missouri, Columbia. Awardees are selected by a committee of Zontians, many of whom, like Langenbeck, have won the fellowship themselves. The committee, which consists of six members and two consultants, is chaired by Florence Metz, a physical chemist who is general manager, new ventures at the East Chicago, Ind.-based Inland Steel. Mary Good, chairman of the National Science Board and senior vice president, technology, at the Morristown, N.J.-based Allied-Signal Inc., formerly chaired the committee and now serves as a consultant. Metz says she decided to get involved with the fellowship program because "I like to encourage women in science. It's something that I enjoy doing, and women are as good at it as men." Applicants to the program are characterized by their "almost perfect academic records," she says. "They're able to describe their career goals very well." Adds Jacobs, "They've taken engineering, physics, and math courses right from the beginning." Applicants' backgrounds, the foundation manager says, are "very consistent. It's very clear that this is their life's work." Many applicants have worked for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and most have published papers. In addition, notes Jacobs, the majority have played on sports teams or engaged in other organized physical activities. Applications consist of basic biographical information about the candidate plus a description of her graduate and undergraduate studies, academic record, honors received, publications, employment, and cultural activities. More subjective information includes an essay in which the candidate outlines her academic and professional goals, as well as three recommendations from professors. Applications and recommendations must be postmarked by December 31; two weeks after the due date, application materials are sent to committee members for review. In early March, the committee meets for about two days to select the awardees, and fellowship winners are announced in May. Although an Amelia Earhart Fellow can be awarded a second fellowship and, in exceptional cases, a third one, those who wish a renewal of their award have to submit another complete application, including transcripts, recommendations, and essay. "It's not an automatic thing," says Jacobs, who estimates that 30% to 40% of those who reapply receive a second award. At the opposite extreme, some women who have won an award have returned part of their fellowship money because they obtained jobs and believed that they no longer needed additional funding. Although the program traditionally has gotten a substantial number of applicants from outside the United States, says Jacobs, "we want to make sure that women all over the world who qualify for it know of it." To that end, she says, "this year we're trying something new; we're having the application materials translated and sent around the world." Even though a potential fellowship applicant may be fluent in English, Jacobs explains, "the person routing the mail may not recognize the information as valuable scholarship information," and so many qualified women may not have been receiving notice of the program. Translation of the materials is already beginning to impact on the applications Zonta receives, Jacobs says; fellowship officials are receiving mail from previously unheard-from institutions, such as the Madame Curie Institute in France. Jacobs says the women who have won Amelia Earhart Fellowships in the past serve as an additional source of new applicants to the program. "They encourage the women who work under them, and whom they teach, and get them to apply. It's a nice network. And women need all the networks they can manage." For more information about the Amelia Earhart Fellowship Program, contact Rickie Jacobs, Zonta International, 557 West Randolph St., Chicago, Ill. 60606; (312) 930-5848.

Amelia Earhart Fellowships Encourage Women To Study Aerospace Science

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