A Few Hidden Women
Who are they? What was their story? Has their legacy survived?
The history of travel is often told through the image of all pith helmets, heavy boots, and the colonial urge to plant a flag. Yet, if we pull back the curtain on the industry, we find a lineage of women who viewed the world not as a territory to be conquered, but as a map to be redrawn. They didn’t just move from point A to B; they redefined what it meant to arrive. Here are a few architects of the modern odyssey—women who transformed travel from an act of transit into an art form.
Bessie Coleman (1892 - 1926): Aviator At Heart
The Short & Sweet: First African-American woman & first Native American to hold a pilot license. Stunt pilot for high profile air shows in the United States. We often hold up Amelia Earhart as the lone female pioneer, but Bessie Coleman preceded her in getting an international pilot’s license.
Where Would Travel Be Without Her?: A bland - upper class, purely - white flight audience. A stagnant talent pool.
Why Hidden?: Systemically marginalized by the mainstream historical record for decades. Because she didn't have the backing of major U.S. aviation companies or wealthy white social circles, she didn't have the PR machine necessary to cement a lasting "mainstream" legend. In her own time, she was a massive celebrity within Black America and greater, known as "Queen Bess."
Her Story Was Saved: Since 1931, Black pilots have performed an annual flyover of her grave in Chicago. Although, it wasn't until the 1990s that mainstream institutions "caught up." She received a U.S. postal stamp in 1995 and was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 2006.
Ellen Church (1904 - 1965): Beyond the Sky Girl
The Short & Sweet: Convinced Boeing Air Transport that planes needed more than just pilots; they needed a human interface. Before Church, flight was a terrifying, nauseating ordeal. By creating the role of the flight attendant, she shifted the travel industry from "transportation" to "hospitality."
Where Would Travel Be Without Her?: Scarred beyond belief on flights.
Why Hidden?: For a long time, the aviation industry didn't want to highlight the fact that their first flight attendant was actually a qualified pilot who had been rejected from the cockpit simply for being a woman. Admitting that Ellen Church was a pilot would mean admitting that the industry’s gender barriers were arbitrary and talent-blind. It was easier to frame her as a "pioneer of service" rather than a "thwarted pilot."
Her Story Was Saved: Her hometown of Cresco, Iowa, named their airport after her, ensuring her name is literally on the map for every pilot who lands there - Ellen Church Field
Gladys West (1926 2026): The Architect
The Short & Sweet: Before there were blue dots on our smartphone screens guiding us through the streets of Kyoto or the backroads of Provence, there was Gladys West. A mathematician at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, West spent decades processing data from the first satellites to model the exact shape of the Earth—a "geoid" that accounts for the planet’s gravitational irregularities. Her calculations became the foundational code for GPS. Every time a traveler "pins" a location or a pilot corrects a flight path, they are moving through a digital world built by West’s pen.
Where Would Travel Be Without Her?: Lost as f***.
Why Hidden?: If you didn’t know her name until recently, it’s because her life’s work sat at the intersection of top secret and systemically ignored. It was layered under decades of military classification, institutional bias, and her own humble professionalism
Her Story Was Saved: She was finally inducted into the Air Force Space and Missile Pioneers Hall of Fame
Evelyn Berezin (1925 - 2018): Reservations Allowed
The Short & Sweet: Before the 1960s, booking a flight was a manual ritual involving chalkboards and teleprinters—a game of logistical telephone that often ended in overbooked chaos. In 1962, Berezin designed the Reservisor for United Airlines, the first computerized reservation system of its kind. Her invention didn’t just automate a task; it birthed the concept of real-time global commerce. Every time you refresh a booking page and see a seat disappear, you are witnessing the ghost of Berezin’s logic. She understood that for travel to become a massive industry, it first had to become a reliable data set.
Where Would Travel Be Without Her?: Still on hold with customer service.
Why Hidden?: Yet for decades, her name was missing from the pantheon of tech giants like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. Her story wasn't hidden by a secret vault, but by a combination of blatant 1960s sexism, the shadow of a corporate giant (IBM), and the "pink-collar" stigma attached to her greatest invention.
Her Story Was Saved: It took until the 2010s for the narrative to shift. The Computer History Museum named her a Fellow, finally putting her on the same level as the men she out-engineered in 2015.
These few women provided the infrastructure for our wanderlust. They ensured that when we leave home, we are guided by a grid, protected by a signal, and spoken to in a language of symbols. To the future, forever building.
