Women’s struggle to gain altitude in aviation industry
Whether it is in the boardroom or the cockpit, the aviation industry trails on the issue of gender and diversity. Only 3% of airline CEs are women, according to a 2017 survey by industry journal Airline Business of the 100 biggest carriers by revenue. This compared with 7% in the FTSE 100 at the time of the study. The International Air Transport Association’s board of governors only has two women out of 31 members. When it comes to pilots, the figures are just as unforgiving. In the US in 2017, just 7% of 609,000 pilots were women, according to data from the FAA. As part of a transparency initiative, the UK government uncovered poor gender pay gaps in aviation. Ryanair’s median hourly rate for women was 72% lower than for men, easyJet’s was 46% lower and BA’s was 10% lower. The median pay gap across the UK was 9.7%, while Ryanair had only 3% of women in its top quartile by pay. Personal experiences of some women in the industry also highlight disturbing examples of discrimination. Kathy McCullough, who started as a pilot in the early 1980s, said in the first years of her career discrimination was overt. “You should be home barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen,” was the attitude directed at her, she said. “I just tried not to bristle.”<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2018-06-19/general/women2019s-struggle-to-gain-altitude-in-aviation-industry
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Women’s struggle to gain altitude in aviation industry
Whether it is in the boardroom or the cockpit, the aviation industry trails on the issue of gender and diversity. Only 3% of airline CEs are women, according to a 2017 survey by industry journal Airline Business of the 100 biggest carriers by revenue. This compared with 7% in the FTSE 100 at the time of the study. The International Air Transport Association’s board of governors only has two women out of 31 members. When it comes to pilots, the figures are just as unforgiving. In the US in 2017, just 7% of 609,000 pilots were women, according to data from the FAA. As part of a transparency initiative, the UK government uncovered poor gender pay gaps in aviation. Ryanair’s median hourly rate for women was 72% lower than for men, easyJet’s was 46% lower and BA’s was 10% lower. The median pay gap across the UK was 9.7%, while Ryanair had only 3% of women in its top quartile by pay. Personal experiences of some women in the industry also highlight disturbing examples of discrimination. Kathy McCullough, who started as a pilot in the early 1980s, said in the first years of her career discrimination was overt. “You should be home barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen,” was the attitude directed at her, she said. “I just tried not to bristle.”<br/>
