First woman member of the Air Line Pilots Association

In 1974, Emily Howell Warner became the first woman member of the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), the dominant U.S. airline‑pilot union. Sources document the year but not the exact day; this achievement is therefore recorded with an approximate date.

ALPA had historically excluded or effectively marginalized women because there were almost no female airline line pilots to admit. Warner’s membership followed her 1973 hiring at Frontier Airlines and formally recognized her as a peer in the collective bargaining and safety advocacy structures that shaped airline cockpit careers.

Her entry into ALPA was significant for several reasons. It meant that women now had a voice—however small at first—inside the union halls where seniority lists, work rules, and grievance procedures were negotiated. It also underscored that her status as an airline pilot was not symbolic; she met all professional criteria required of union members.

Warner’s pioneering union membership helped smooth the path for later generations of women pilots who would join ALPA without facing the same novelty and skepticism. Educational and museum narratives repeatedly cite this as a key barrier‑breaking milestone alongside her hiring and captaincy. By becoming ALPA’s first female member in 1974, she extended her trailblazing from the cockpit into the labor institutions that governed airline piloting in the United States.