WOMEN AS MOTORISTS

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 118, 21 May 1930, Page 9

WOMEN AS MOTORISTS

FIFTY THOUSAND IN" N.S.W,

(From "The Post's" Representative) SYDNEY, 15th May. A decade ago everyone gaped at the

spectacle of a woman driving a motorcar. To-day there are nearly 50,000 licensed women drivers in New South Wales; ' 3?or years a lady motorist never appeared before a Court in Sydney for breaches of the Traffic Aetr-possibly because the sweetest of smiles turned away the wrath of the constable. Nowadays their numbers have introduced the familiarity which breeds contempt, the lady motorists frequently appear before Magistrates.

It was stated at the Sydney traffic office this week that they are applying for licences at the rate of one woman for qvery seven men. With that same peaceful penetration they are invading the flying fields, and already eight ladies have obtained a pilot's licence through the Sydney Aero Club. " :

"Some of1 them have taken much longer than the average male pilot because the instructors have been very careful with them," said an aero club official. "Women are liable to become a little flustered at 'first, but they soon overcome that feeling." . ' ■ ■'

Miss Phyllis Arnott, Miss Freda Deaton,.and'Mrs. John Terry have each won their passenger-carrying licences. They are now studying for their B licences, which enable them to commercialise thdir flying, by taking payment from passengers, and by carrying mails.

Most lady flyers, however, regard aviation merely as a hobby, and have no desire to go for flights to England or the South Pole.