There are women in aeronautics, but these professions are still overrepresented by men, especially in positions of responsibility. According to a 2021 study by Rebecca Lutte, an associate professor at the Aviation Institute at the University of Nebraska in Omaha, less than 6% of the world’s major airline pilots are women.
Only 8 of the 100 largest carriers by passenger numbers are headed by female bosses. This is the case of Air France, directed by Anne Rigail, of Aer Lingus (Lynne Embleton) and, since July 1, of KLM (Marjan Rintel).
From airline pilot uniforms initially designed for men to the scant visual representation of women in training manuals, there are many barriers to entry. As in other circles, sexism and sexual assaults are a reality. In a 2018 survey by Women in Aviation International, 71% of women surveyed said they had experienced harassment in a professional setting.
commitments
However, many women have marked the history of aviation, including the American aviator Amelia Earhart, the first woman to cross the Atlantic by plane, or the French Raymonde de Laroche, the first woman in the world to obtain a pilot’s license, in 1910.
During the 20th century, many female aviators even participated in the war effort. A famous example is the WASP (Women Air Force Service Pilots) paramilitary program, which supported the US Air Force during World War II. Among these women, the American Nancy Harkness Love. Another female US Air Force pilot, Wally Funk, who at the age of 77 participated in the orbital flight organized by Jeff Bezos after being repeatedly rejected by NASA for being a woman.
In France, during this period, Margot Duhalde will remain the only Free French woman pilot, as the “Paroles de Combattants de la Liberation” Twitter account recently recalled.“. In the conquest of space, Claudie Haigneré is the first French and European woman to travel to space.
Since then, many women have become army pilots. On July 19, Lt. Col. Claire, a Rafale pilot, even became the first woman to take command of a fighter squadron. She assumed her duties as commander of the ECE 1/30 “Silver Coast” within the French Air and Space Force (AAE).
In the civil sector, airlines have made reducing gender inequalities a priority. United has pledged that at least half of the 5,000 pilots the company plans to train by 2030 will be women and minorities. Some airlines are already doing well, such as Air India, which has nearly 13% female pilots, according to figures from the International Society of Women Airline Pilots.
There are also training scholarships, such as that of the Canadian group CAE, which signed a collaboration at the Farnborough Air Show with easyJet, the British company that plans to hire one of the European participants.
success models
The road to parity remains long, but there are reasons to be optimistic, believes Sandra Bour Schaeffer, head of Airbus UpNext, a subsidiary of the European planemaker that specializes in disruptive technologies. For this Franco-German engineer, who worked as a test flight crew member and has twenty years of experience in the aeronautical industry, the key is training the younger generations.
The ability to trust successful female role models is also critical, adds Sandra Bour Schaeffer. But clichés are sometimes hard to die for. Rebecca Lutte, who has a pilot’s license, regularly flies her hobby plane, an RV-10, with her husband in the passenger seat. Several times, air traffic controllers went to the aircraft to ask her husband if there was no problem. “It doesn’t happen often, but it shows that there is still work to be done,” she laughs.
Source: BFM TV
