Where are all the female pilots?
For this blog, I welcome my partner, Melissa Heath as guest commentator. Feminism and social equality are close to her heart, and I feel it is only appropriate that she write this essential post.
‘Welcome aboard flight 527 to Christchurch. Please place all your bags in the overhead lockers or under the seat in front of you’.
We don’t even blink when we hear the flight attendants give their P.A. before a flight – whether male or female, though in my day, it was certainly more common to hear a women’s voice than a man’s.
However, our ears prick up when we hear a woman’s voice from the flight deck and positively gasp at the novelty if the disembodied voice declares that she is the captain. With only 1% of airline captains women, she who wears four braids on her jacket sleeves and epaulettes is practically a unicorn in aviation – a mythical creature.
It was heartening to read this article about women who have made it into commercial pilot roles – being paid to fly, but however encouraging the article was, it is still indicative of the gender imbalance when you find such an article written in the first place.
Humans have been flying for more than 100 years, women have been driving cars for about as long but there is still nothing everyday about a woman being a pilot. Why is this?
I believe it starts in the home, is imposed in children’s picture books and then cemented in place in schools. Girls are simply not exposed to the possibility of women being pilots. Every picture book I look at with my plane mad granddaughter shows a man at the controls. It’s just depressing. Action movies seldom ever have female pilots in significant roles. Where are the autobiographies of female airline captains?
It is the absence of seeing possibility alongside the absence of role models that guides girls away from aviation. It falls into the same category as driving trains, racing cars and piloting ships.
I see that Mattel has created a Barbie Pilot doll, but I haven’t seen it in any major retailer in NZ yet despite being released in 2018. Maybe I missed it.
Like many male dominated roles, being an airline captain is one of the most well paid jobs in New Zealand. There is no medical or technical reason why women are not in this role in greater numbers.
Having had my passionate rant, I do have to remark that recently, when John and I were out on a cross country jaunt in a Tecnam, every pilot on the airwaves for the entire afternoon was a female – this included both recreational and commercial. I sat there feeling quite pleased.
It’s taken 100 years to get a saturation of around 1% of airline captains being female (more a tint rather than a saturation). Here’s hoping that within 20 years we should see a figure hovering around 50%. We have seen a similar growth in the medical and engineering fields, so it’s not out of the question.
What needs to change? I feel that parents reading stories to their daughters could replace all pronouns from ‘he/him’ to she/her when it comes to stories about adventure and exciting exploits.
Every opportunity to promote airline pilot as a career for women ought to be in the guide books for career advisors.
All members of the aviation community, from aeroclub member to airline management ought to be doing a hell of a lot more to bring girls and women into their folds. How many women are on executive boards in the aviation industry?
Oh! If only I could change the world! But it will suffice if we can find talented young female aviation students who can be considered for our scholarships. Please, I beg you, bring them to our attention! We’re here to help them.
