Throughout history, women have had to challenge the accepted assumptions regarding gender roles. These gender roles dictated the jobs and duties that were considered to be women’s work. Women started to move into the men’s sphere by learning to fly an airplane. As these women started flying they figured that they had to challenge the stereotypes and gender roles of women. Through the 20th century three women aviators inspired changes in these roles for women. “Women who, despite the odds against them, pursed their intellectual curiosity and became known as 'Women of the Wind'” (Langley). During this time women were able to make gains in women’s rights; one in which women had some success was in aviation. The ideas about the accepted jobs and duties of women came from the gender roles that had been a part of American culture for over a century. These gender roles were developed to clearly identify the spheres of work for men and women. As English colonists built cities and the shops. They believed that only men should work outside the home and had the strength and stamina to do hard work. Women should stay in the home and run the home. Other duties of women included preparing the food, sewing, and washing the clothes. These duties changed over the years as household technology improved. For instance, women did not have to sew their clothes for their family because clothing shops created clothing. The preparation and cooking the food became easier and quicker for women, as refrigerators and electricity became common in the home. Women were the backbone of globalization. Even though men did most of the labor work, if it was not for women who labored in the kitchen and homes they would lack cleanliness causing sickness, or proper dinner for energy. If it was not for women doing the little things then men could not have focused on the big things, then we would not be where we are today. Over the years women were able to find opportunities to bend and modify these gender roles. One of the earliest opportunities was on the rural farms before the industrial revolution, “gender roles, caused extensive debate in the media” (Van). On most of the small rural farms the men and their children worked out in the fields. However sometimes this was not enough people to get all of the work done. When this happened women had to go help out and work in the fields along with their other duties as well. When the industrial revolution began only men worked in the factories but families found out that it was difficult to make enough money with only the men working. Women started to go to work in the factories. Women proved that they were able to work outside of the home sphere and they showed that they could do the same work as men. With this challenge as a precedent, women started to test gender roles more and more. By the beginning of the 20th century, women challenged the gender roles in every aspect of society. The gender roles that were in place at this time did not give women many rights. Most women were still subject to their husbands and their will. “In 1925, the permanent committee of the International had declared that women were not to be granted licenses to fly” (Reynolds). With the role of men over wives, they also had the government doing the same. Also during this period unmarried women with no male figure guiding them were seen as not true women. The gender roles of women during this time were intended to manage women and monitor their actions. But in the 20th century a new technology that was invented gave women more opportunities to influence and change the gender roles. The field of transportation saw two new technologies being introduced. The first was the car, at first extremely complex to operate. Many men believed that women would not be able to perform the complex operations of driving a car. However, some women were able to figure out how to drive a car. One such woman was Blanche Stuart Scott. She was always interested in a challenge. In 1910 she “became the first woman to drive an automobile coast to coast.” (Scott) She thought there was “nothing spectacular, strenuous, or notorious” (Woman to Drive Auto to Frisco) about this trip. During this coast-to-coast automobile trip Scott witnessed a Wright aircraft fly while she stopped in Dayton, Ohio. This sight interested Scott in aviation, and she got her first airplane ride in California. Her trip gained the attention of Jerome Fanciulli, who was a man on Glenn Curtiss’ exhibition team. Glenn Curtiss was an aviation pioneer that challenged the Wright brothers in the beginning years of manned flight. He asked Scott if she wanted to learn how to fly. The man who would teach her was Glenn Curtiss. He was not as excited about it as Fanciulli but he decided to teach her anyway. She was the first and only woman to be taught by Curtiss. During her flying lessons she practiced taxiing the airplane, a maneuver where th