Women still absent from top airline roles and male-led boards
Women have hardly made any inroads into airline boardrooms and executive ranks in the past four years, leaving the industry at risk of missing a key 2025 target for female representation. Among 123 listed carriers tracked by Bloomberg, women typically hold just 13% of executive posts, less than the 16% in financial services for example, where representation at board level is 21%. Only JetBlue Airways Corp. has an equal gender split among executives. Twenty-two have no female executives at all. Those are confronting numbers for aviation leaders gathering Tuesday in Singapore for a summit to address diversity and other post-Covid challenges. Years of advocacy work on behalf of women and targets to bring in more female managers and directors seem to be having little effect. Marginalization of women at the top has continued even as many airlines attempt to reset and bolster workforces that were depleted during the pandemic. “The industry has nearly ignored the contributions women could bring,” said Caroline Marete, assistant professor at the school of aviation and transportation technology at Indiana’s Purdue University. “Having representation in key decision-making positions at the national and international levels is key. Women need representation where it matters.” Companies aren’t blind to the gender imbalance — they’ve been talking about doing better for years. While a handful including Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., Air New Zealand Ltd. and JetBlue have made advances, they are broadly the exception. Among the 123 airlines, only Canadian tour operator Transat AT Inc. and Air New Zealand achieved an equal split of men and women directors, according to gender employment data collated by Bloomberg. Eleven have all-male boards. Gender bias hangs over global aviation. Pilots, air-traffic controllers and aircraft engineers are mostly men, cabin crew are predominantly women, and executives and directors are largely male. Marete of Purdue University said girls should have exposure to aviation and aerospace from an early age to normalize the sectors as all-gender careers. <br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2023-02-28/general/women-still-absent-from-top-airline-roles-and-male-led-boards
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Women still absent from top airline roles and male-led boards
Women have hardly made any inroads into airline boardrooms and executive ranks in the past four years, leaving the industry at risk of missing a key 2025 target for female representation. Among 123 listed carriers tracked by Bloomberg, women typically hold just 13% of executive posts, less than the 16% in financial services for example, where representation at board level is 21%. Only JetBlue Airways Corp. has an equal gender split among executives. Twenty-two have no female executives at all. Those are confronting numbers for aviation leaders gathering Tuesday in Singapore for a summit to address diversity and other post-Covid challenges. Years of advocacy work on behalf of women and targets to bring in more female managers and directors seem to be having little effect. Marginalization of women at the top has continued even as many airlines attempt to reset and bolster workforces that were depleted during the pandemic. “The industry has nearly ignored the contributions women could bring,” said Caroline Marete, assistant professor at the school of aviation and transportation technology at Indiana’s Purdue University. “Having representation in key decision-making positions at the national and international levels is key. Women need representation where it matters.” Companies aren’t blind to the gender imbalance — they’ve been talking about doing better for years. While a handful including Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., Air New Zealand Ltd. and JetBlue have made advances, they are broadly the exception. Among the 123 airlines, only Canadian tour operator Transat AT Inc. and Air New Zealand achieved an equal split of men and women directors, according to gender employment data collated by Bloomberg. Eleven have all-male boards. Gender bias hangs over global aviation. Pilots, air-traffic controllers and aircraft engineers are mostly men, cabin crew are predominantly women, and executives and directors are largely male. Marete of Purdue University said girls should have exposure to aviation and aerospace from an early age to normalize the sectors as all-gender careers. <br/>
