Women in Aviation
“Gone are the days when the aviation industry is just a man’s world. Women in aviation are taking the Captain’s seat and creating change toward gender diversity.
There has been a massive increase in women taking on careers in aviation within the last few years.
Previously a woman would only be seen in a role as a flight attendant or air hostess but these days there are more and more women becoming professional pilots, commercial pilots or airline pilots, airforce pilots, Captains on the flight deck, flight instructors, drone pilots, charter pilots, or working as ground staff, air traffic controllers, aeronautical engineers, and mechanics.
Although we have seen such a positive change, women still face discrimination at every level of society. Aviation is no exception. Gender inequality is still an obstacle.
For example, in 2017, only 4% of helicopter pilots in South Africa are women. The situation isn’t much better in other countries either: In the US, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), less than 7 percent of military pilots are women.
However, in recent years there has been a massive push to create more gender diversity.
Within aviation, there are job opportunities that go beyond just piloting the plane. Each different stream requires a different set of skills. These include Women who aspire to be pilots, Women who aspire to work in maintenance, and Women who aspire to be mechanics.
In a recent report by the University of Nebraska, women make up less than 10% of pilots, maintenance technicians, and airline executives globally.
Women remain significantly underrepresented in most fields in aviation. Creating a diverse aviation workforce is essential for enhanced safety, increased innovation, greater profitability, and meeting the workforce demand of the aviation industry.”
Source: researchgate.net
So this begs the question… why don’t more women choose flying careers?
The culture around women in aviation has not changed much over time and the notion of women being “incapable” of the job is still widely common. Gender issues also come in with the gender pay gap within the aviation sector, which goes for most other professional industries too.
This has brought on a massive rise in the feminist movement towards achieving a more equal world of rights and opportunities for women by breaking down these patriarchal ideas.
Female aviators then and now
Women in aviation have come a long way since Amelia Earhart but there is still distrust in female pilots – as if they do not have the same required skills to fly as their male counterparts.
Women often had to work hard to prove themselves as capable as men in the field. Clare Booth Luce wrote, “Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, ‘She doesn’t have what it takes.’ They will say, ‘Women don’t have what it takes.’”
National Women’s Day in South Africa is a powerful day to create awareness for equal rights.
August marks the start of Women’s Month in South Africa, which commemorates the achievements of women throughout history, including the struggle against apartheid. On August 9th each year, it becomes Women’s Day, a public holiday dedicated to celebrating the contributions of women to society and paying tribute to those who fought for gender equality and still do so today.
The day has been marked since 1994 by marches across the country and numerous events, such as concerts, exhibitions, film screenings, and workshops. Many organizations hold special activities for children and young people, encouraging them to learn about the importance of women’s participation in politics and civil society to eradicate sexism within our everyday society.
Women’s Day forms part of South Africa’s Women’s Month which provides an opportunity to pay tribute to the generations of women whose struggles laid the foundations for the progress made in empowering women and achieving gender equality to date.
Source: internationalwomensday.com
Women’s day continues to highlight these significant issues of inequality and discrimination in the workplace and at home. It fights to liberate society from these backward ideas of how women are viewed as well as pay tribute and empower their capabilities and skills.
Women in aviation – paving the way for South African girls
Within the South African context, women have definitely started making waves in the aviation industry.
Mandisa Mfeka is known to be the first female fighter pilot in South Africa.
South Africa’s first black female helicopter pilot, Refilwe Ledwaba, is making huge waves in fighting these issues of sexism within aviation. There are still many young girls and women who fear that discrimination will prevent them from achieving their dreams. This just shouldn’t be the case.
Ledwabe is also known to be the first female black helicopter pilot to join the South African Police service.
She has been running her charity organisation, Girls Fly Programme in Africa (GFPA) for over a decade, teaching hundreds of young girls in aerospace and aviation.
Through her organisation she creates a foundation for primary and high school female students in subjects such as science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The education for these young girls is vital to cultivate a new generation of aviators and give them a stepping stone into the industry through various other programmes.
The organisation established GFPA. We wanted to create a platform that educates girls about aviation and aerospace at a grassroots level. We also wanted to empower them with information and access to other women in the field addressing one of the enablers of gender equality in the STEM field.
It now operates in 4 African countries – and Ledewa has her eyes set on expanding into other markets.
She gives most of her credit to her upbringing – led by her empowered and ‘superwoman’ mother.
“I don’t know how she (her mother) did it, she sent us all to university. So, from a very young age, I always thought I could be anything because I looked at her and I’m like ‘Oh, there’s a superwoman,’” she said.
Source: cnn.com
“For a long time, I was the only black female that was holding the highest license for helicopters… But being the first for me is not important. The important is the 20th person, the 30th person, then we can start talking,”.
In the face of it all, she believes that staying optimistic is key to her action plan in being the active change the flying and non-flying world needs. It is through partnering with optimism that break through these barriers.
On a personal level we, at Simuflight, have had the opportunity to work with her while she did our B200 course as a student – she radiates an energy of nothing is impossible and that is what we all need to keep in mind.
The “number of people who are not happy to see you there, are far less than those who want you to be,” she said. “Partner with them.”
In Simuflight we have seen time and again that this distrust is completely unfounded. In fact, female pilots usually have a very fine-tune feeling for flying and landing the aircraft. Their situational awareness and eye for detail are sharp and their work ethic is thorough and second to none.
In recent months Simuflight obtained two new female instructors as part of the instructor’s pool. They part their knowledge and help pilots to better themselves and prepare for their tests.
Through the years there have been remarkable steps forward in creating these opportunities for women in the aviation industry but there are still bounds and leaps to be made.
So this month of August (and every other month) we pay tribute to all these powerful female change-makers in and out of the aviation industry. We salute you.
“I want a future where a young girl can just wake up. Like, ‘I’m going to do that one day,’ and not have doubts,” – Refilwe Ledwabe.
