Launching women to the skies

We recently wrote about the Stewardess Rebellion of the 1970s and the recent (albeit slow) progress that has been made regarding sexism in aviation. While it is true that there has been progress for female flight attendants, aviation still remains one of the most sexist fields, with the highest gender gaps. To be precise, women only make up between five and six percent of all pilots – a tragically low number, compared to the over 21% of flight attendants made up by women.

There has been a significant push in contemporary society for gender equality, including in fields that have remained quite male-dominated such as engineering, scientific research and tech – and yet, mobility, and aviation in particular, are still largely falling behind. There are certainly many reasons for this, which must be understood if we are ever to make a real change: starting with a look back into the past of women in aviation.

Woman’s first flight  

To start right at the beginning, the first woman to take flight in a hot air balloon was in 1784 – a year after a sheep, rooster and a duck got to be the first animals to fly in a hot air balloon in 1783. A few decades later, in quite the progressive step, Napoleon notably made a woman named Sophie Blanchard his Chief of Air Service in 1810, making her the only woman in a position of leadership in aviation in the world for many decades to come. 

In 1902, a British woman was the first woman to ever fly an aircraft on her own, which was a dirigible. The first female passenger on an actual aeroplane was in 1906, which was also the year of the first ever solo aeroplane flight made by a woman – even if it was only for 200 metres. 

The first proper female solo aeroplane flight took place in 1909 in Belgium. This was a promising start, despite it taking place a good few years after men had started piloting planes. It is also worthy of note that very few – if not none at all – women were part of the many engineering and flying experiments that took place during the late 1890s and early 1900s all over the world. 

Finally, the first woman to earn a pilot licence was in 1910, while the first woman to patent an aircraft design was in 1912. Of course, when looking back this far in the past, it’s important to remember the norms and politics of the time – which were inherently sexist – in order to put these firsts into perspective. The few women who did make it onto this list of firsts were exceptions rather than the norm, and aviation remained a very much male-run field for the century to come. 

Evolution

While there is thankfully a bit more space for women in aviation these days as there was in the 1900s, there have still been many “firsts” happening all throughout the 2000s. There are still many countries that saw their first female pilots in the 2000s, such as Singapore, which only started hiring women pilots in 2016.

When we talk about sexism, it is also vital to speak on the intersectionality of sexism and racism, putting women of colour at an even higher disadvantage and therefore making their “firsts” notably later than white women across the world. 

Now, what about where we are today? Well, in 2021, there was still a severe lack of women in all types of roles within the aviation industry: engineers (11.6%), air traffic controllers (16.8%), and then for the lowest of all, aviation organisation CEOs (3%) and maintenance technicians (2.6%). 

Why we need women in the air

As many industries have now (finally) realised, diversity is inherently conducive to innovation. Breaking the power structures that have been the norm and making them accessible to people of all genders, backgrounds, social class, cultures and orientation creates a much-needed disruption. 

This disruption is vital, not only because of the intersection of new perspectives that results in innovation, but also because it means that finally, these products and services that are used by the global population will actually be conceived and run by people that represent them. If you’re a woman, you’ve likely encountered this issue before, whether with medicine conceived by and for men, seat belts, or perhaps the most common, air conditioning – and aviation is no different. 

The industry has seen some key developments over the years, notably with IT and design becoming increasingly key elements of aviation, as well as the effort by airlines to become retailing players. This creates an even greater need for women in the field, bringing in the qualities and perspectives that all-male teams often lack. 

Progress and what needs to happen

Interestingly, low-cost and regional airlines have been the ones making the most progress in hiring women with various initiatives to hire women and close the gender gaps within their companies. Some regular commercial airlines have also taken steps, such as Air France with their high female-workforce both in digital and innovation sectors. 

Fortunately, the birth of many start-ups and disruptive companies within aviation, such as Archer, Lilum, Volocopter and more has created counter balance, as these companies strive to challenge all aspects of the status quo and are dead-set on innovation. These companies tend to have more female staff at all levels, from design, engineering and executive roles. 

Still, the gap remains, and although some changes have to come from within the industry – such as hiring reforms – many have to start from the bottom up. One of the main reasons why there is still such a huge lack of women in aviation is simply because of educational systems and policies which are not encouraging (if not outright discouraging) women and girls to go after these previously male positions rather than making them more accessible. Thankfully, there are now programs and initiatives with precisely this goal in mind, which we hope will see some positive results in the coming years. 
We always like to stay optimistic at ellectric, and to focus on the positive – and there is certainly some positive change happening within aviation these days – but because our mission is to inform, inspire and empower, we simply want more for all of the amazing women and girls interested in anything related to mobility. Check out the other articles in our “elle” section of the magazine for more inspiring female content.

Picture 1: expertinfantry
Picture 2: simpleinsomnia
Picture 3: aviatrix20141