If I asked you to name a female aviator, Amelia Earhart would likely come to mind. She was, after all, the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. Her disappearance somewhere over the Pacific Ocean made her a legend.
Each Female Aviator Inspires the Next
Amelia was not the first woman to fly. Since Wilbur and Orville Wright took off at Kitty Hawk, women have contributed to what has become an $800 billion-dollar industry. It was Katherine Wright, Wilbur and Orville’s sister, who provided the moral and financial support for her brother’s success. When they flew exhibition flights in France, she sat with them, becoming one of the first women ever to fly in an airplane.
Baroness Raymonde de Laroche was in the crowd for one of these flights and, inspired by Katherine’s courage, became the first woman to not only fly solo, but to obtain her pilot’s license.
And, it was the Baroness, flying exhibitions in France, who inspired Bessica Raiche to immediately begin building airplanes with her husband in the US.
One after another, women dared to fly and inspired other women to follow. They each gave shape to what might otherwise have remained a dream.
The World Needs More Women Pilots
Despite this history, only 3 percent of the world’s commercial airline pilots are women. Why? The cost of learning to fly is an obvious barrier. Getting certified and building up enough flight time to qualify for an airline job can cost well over $100K.
According to a U.S. study by Penny Rafferty Hamilton, a Colorado-based aviation educator, another problem is the lack of female mentors. If young women only see men piloting their flights, they are less likely to see it as a career choice for themselves.
That’s why so many airlines—British Airways, Easyjet, Virgin Atlantic–are launching campaigns to increase the visibility of the thousands of women who already fly commercial airliners. Female pilots are visiting schools and recruiting events to remind others the career is there; it’s within their grasp.
India leads the world in training professional women pilots. Beating the US and the UK, the country produces female pilots at 4 times the global average. In the US, 6 percent of commercial pilots are women, a percentage that hasn’t changed much since the 1980s. Compare that to India, where more than 10 percent of pilots are women, where sitting in 20 percent of cadet seats at flying schools are women, where 95 percent finish, ready for a job with an airline.
On pace to become the third largest aviation market by 2020, India simply can’t ignore the potential of half their population. Frankly, neither can the rest of the world. Boeing estimates the world needs another 637,000 pilots by 2036.
The demand will be there. Let’s get more women in the cockpit.
Check out our latest infographic below:
