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Copyright © 2004-2020 Dawn E. Monroe. All rights reserved.

  
 

  The names appearing are just a fraction of the Canadian women of accomplishment.
Check out The Famous Canadian Women 's section ON THE JOB 
which contains mini profiles of 3000 Canadian Women of Achievement.
 
         
    
1920's
Eileen Vollick. Born Wiarton, Ontario 1908. Fascinated by aviation from childhood this daring young woman enrolled in a Hamilton, Ontario, flying school On March 31 1928 she passed the federal aviation test and become the 1st Canadian woman to earn a private pilot's certificate. Eileen soon moved to New Your, U.S.A. to make her life but she had opened the doors of aviation to Canadian women who would embrace flying careers as licensed pilots.
1930's
Helen Marcelle Harrison-Bristol. Born December 7, 1909, Vancouver, British Columbia. Died April 27, 1995, Blane, Washington, U.S.A. Helen's early education took place in England and Belgium. After her first flight she was determined to become a pilot. She took secret flying lessons and attained her license in 1935. While visiting Singapore she gained her sea plane license. In 1936 she earned a B license in the London Flying Club, England. She studied for her instructors ranking and became one of the 1st accredited flying instructors in England. IN South Africa she taught at the Cape Town Flying Club and became a flight instructor for the Royal South African Air Force. In 1939 She received her commercial pilot's license in the U.S.A.  becoming the 1st women in the world to hold a commercial pilot's license in four countries. That same year she divorced her South African husband, Louis Botha de Waal. During World War ll, even with her qualifications and flight hours women were simply not accepted as pilots in the Air Force. By 1940 she was a test pilot and Chief Flying Instructor for Cub Aircraft Company, Hamilton, Ontario. By 1942 she was the first Canadian women ferry pilot to serve in the Air Transport Auxiliary in the United Kingdom. She flew new planes to their destination overseas and throughout England. After the was she became a demonstration pilot. For the next 30 odd years she held various flying instructor positions  retiring in 1969. In 1968 she was presented with the British Columbia Aviation Council's Air Safety Trophy in recognition of her 14,000 hours as pilot-in-command without injury to passengers or crew. In 1974 she was inducted into the Canadian Aviation Hall of Fame. (2020)
1950's

Moretta Fenton Beall 'Molly' Reilly.  Born  February 25, 1922 Lindsay, Ontario. Died November 24, 1980.  In 1939. Molly tried to sign up with the Royal Canadian Air Force, but they were not accepting women until 1941 when the Women’s’ Division was founded.  She was one of the 1st recruits and she worked in the photographic area to get to fly.  She finally earned her pilots license after the war and in 1953 she went to England to earn a senior commercial license. In 1959 she married John Hardisty 'Jack' Reilly (1921-2003)  and that same year, 1959, she became a full time charter pilot where she was the 1st woman in Canada be a captain and the 1st woman to fly to the Arctic professionally.  She became the 1st woman to be a corporate pilot in Canada when she was Chief Pilot for Canadian Utilities Company in 1965. .She was inducted as a member of the Canadian Aviation Hall of Fame in 1994. (2017)
1970's
Rosella Bjornson. Born Lethbridge, Alberta July 13, 1947. As a child she dreamed of being a pilot. At 17 she took her first lesson and completed her Private Pilot's License in just two months! She accumulated flying hours while she did her studies at the University of Calgary and established the first group of Girl Guide Air Rangers in Calgary.  In 1973 she was hired as a First Officer with the Canadian airlines Transair. She was the 1st woman to be hired as a First officer in North America on scheduled jet equipment and the 1st woman to be hired by a commercial air line in Canada. She was also the 1st woman to be a member of the Canadian Air Line Pilots Association.  During her second pregnancy in 1984 regulations were changed to allow a pilot who is pregnant to fly. In 1990 she became the 1st woman to be promoted to Captain with a major Canadian air carrier. Throughout her career, she has made valuable and ongoing contributions to Canadian youth by participating in school career days. I She is a member of the Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame.
Judy Camerson is the 1st woman pilot hired by Air Canada.
1980's
Deanne Brasseur and Jane Foster became the 1st women in the world certified to fly fighter aircraft, February 1989 at Cold Lake , Alberta. Source: The Kids Book of Canadian Firsts by Valerie Wyatt (Toronto : Kids Can Press, 2001)
See also  Military

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