In the late twenties a person's gender could keep one from fulfilling her ambitions; with Amelia the pilot, however, the opposite was true.  If she’d been a man she would have faced an even greater struggle with far less fame, and because she was a woman, she was sought out and put in the spotlight.      In the spring of 1928 Mrs. Frederick Guest of London planned on being the first woman to make a solo transatlantic crossing by air.  She had purchased a tri-motored Fokker Monoplane, but was forbidden from making the flight by her family who felt it was too dangerous.  Guest gave up on her dream, but still wanted to see another woman complete the flight as a good will ambassador.  Unable to find a British female pilot she turned to George Palmer Putnam of G.P. Putnam’s Sons Publishing Company in New York for a suggestion of who to carry out the mission.  Palmer’s immediate response was to think of a woman pilot that lived near him, Ruth Nichols.  Nichols was ill at the time, so after a few phone calls he learned of a young social worker who had a pilots license, Earhart.  Captain Hilton Railey telephoned Amelia, and first asked if she had a pilot’s license, and then made the offer,       "Miss Earhart, would you be willing to do something important for the cause of aviation -such as flying a plane across the Atlantic?"  Amelia didn’t need time to think it over, "Yes," she said.  "How could I refuse such a shining adventure?" (Morrissey, 78)      Amelia traveled to New York for an interview to make sure she fit the profile of the woman they wanted.  They discussed her education, employment, and hobbies, but very little about her flying ability.  A couple days later she was told she had the job, and was presented with a contract.  Mrs. Guest would pay for all of her expenses and for the plane, and Amelia would be the captain responsible for all in-flight decisions.  Amelia would not be paid, and any royalties from advertising or speaking  would go back toward the flight’s expenses.  (For more on the actual flight, see "Flight").      Amelia had been chosen to cross the Atlantic because she was a woman, and once she had completed her mission she became internationally known.  Her fame wasn’t entirely because of what she had accomplished, but was due in part to her gender.  Numerous people had crossed the Atlantic by air as pilots and passengers for two decades, and several aircraft had traveled around the globe at that point in time, but this was the first woman to accomplish such a feat.