Did you know that only 3% of the pilots worldwide are women? For some perspective, that means for every 100 newly qualified pilots only three of those are women. While there has been a significant rise of women in Science, Technology, Mathematics, and Engineering, there hasn’t been much movement in this area. What are some of the reason or this? In a poll of 2000 women, some of the common answers were it’s not seen as a real career option. When looking at how many female pilots there are, one of the reasons cited (by 33% of survey takers) was there were no role models to look up to. Aspiration plays a crucial role in most other career choices.One that might be surprising is 10% of those women who took the survey considered it a ‘man’s job.’
Aside from it being a very male-dominated area, there are some reasons that you should consider for either inspiring the young women in your family to become a pilot or consider it for yourself.
Travel The World.
If we are going to talk about the perks, then let’s start with one of the big hitters. In the same week you land in Italy and chow down on some authentic pasta, you might be heading off to Bali. And, while it’s true that you always don’t get to spend much time in each place, you can’t deny that type of life is exciting. When it comes to your real vacation, you’re going to be enjoying a seriously deep discount on flights, plus your frequent flier miles. All of this adding up to an inspiring life where you travel the world and get paid for it, and you can share the joys with your friends and family too.
You Can Be The Role Model
It is sad there are no visible role models in an industry this exciting. As most passengers won’t see you, you might have to do a bit of legwork and offer to speak in schools, or at local career fairs. After you have inspired them to all sign up to learn to be a pilot you might take it one step further and enroll in certified flight instructor instrument training.
There Are More Options To Train
Two of the biggest airlines, Virgin Atlantic and EasyJet, offer brilliant initiatives. EasyJet has the Amy Johnson Initiative, where the aim is to have 2% of their pilots as female – by adding 50 new female pilots each year until 2020. Virgin Atlantic has a Future Flyers Program, which focuses on having a more diverse selection of pilots.