When the WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots) was started in 1942, the military trained male pilots from scratch, but not the female civilian volunteers. Without that military support, interested young women had to cough up all the money they had (sometimes borrowing it) to learn how to fly. And that was only the beginning of their challenges. But those women did not let anything stop them.

“You don’t need legislation to prove something…you can be whatever you set your heart and head to be, and don’t let anybody tell you can’t be, because 1078 women pilots did it in World War II.”
WASP Annelle  Henderson  Bulechek  44-W-2