Release #: Vol. 84, No. 3
April 01, 2015

Pilot Commentary: Give a Girl a Dream

By F/O Jolanda Witvliet (United), Chairman, ALPA National Membership Committee

In early March, the three-day 26th Annual International Women in Aviation Conference was held in Dallas, Tex. Why is this newsworthy? After all, Frontier Airlines hired Emily Warner in 1973 as the first female airline pilot. The glass ceiling for women who want to be professional pilots must be long broken by now!

Well, maybe not.

Just 5.4 percent of ALPA members are women, the same percentage as at British Airways. Lufthansa reports only 5 percent of its pilots are women. By contrast, more than half of U.S. physicians are women. Why the disparity between professions?

Recently an ALPA Education Committee volunteer, Capt. Lisa Mrozek (Delta), spoke to middle-school girls. The girls were concerned about balancing career and family. Their questions led to another: Could this perception of “being on the road all the time” deter girls from becoming pilots? What about male pilots?

Today, more and more male pilots serve in caretaker roles for their dependents. Should the airline industry adapt and allow more pilot scheduling flexibility? Many of our ALPA contracts provide time off to care for sick dependents. However, this time off is often unpaid and limited. Maybe we should collectively bargain for more flexibility in scheduling, such as line sharing, dropping down to minimum hours, taking intermittent time off, and various other methods to improve a pilot’s ability to balance family and career.

Meanwhile, every ALPA pilot can and should make a difference by introducing the aviation industry to our young women—our own daughters, our neighbor’s middle-school daughter, our friend’s niece who is in high school, or a college student we meet on a family vacation. Sometimes the most casual talk can inspire someone to become a pilot.

The Women in Aviation conference theme was “Connect. Engage. Inspire.”

Think about it—before you became a pilot, somebody or something had to inspire you. You had to be exposed to aviation. You had to engage with the industry to set goals. You had to connect with the right people to land some of your jobs.

Here are some suggestions on how to connect with, engage, and inspire our next generation of women aviators:

• Commit to inspiring local students by speaking once a year at a neighborhood school. Don’t know what to say? Log on to the ALPA Education Committee’s part of ALPA’s members-only website and get some ideas. On the site you can order free supplies—pens, stickers, and more—to give to students. If you have questions or need help, e-mail Education@alpa.org.
• Prefer writing to visiting? Write an article for your college alma mater. The editors of the college’s newsletters, Facebook page, and blogs are always looking for good content. Let them know you are an airline pilot, describe what life as an airline pilot is like (the good, the bad, and the ugly), and indicate that you are available to answer questions.
• If you have an airplane, consider taking one young person per year for an introductory flight. Don’t own an airplane? Donate a discovery flight from the local flight school to the girl who writes the best essay about why she deserves to receive this discovery flight. Advertise it on social media.
• Commit to inviting one young girl to the cockpit each month and inspire her to consider pursuing a career in aviation.

Women have been going aloft for centuries now. When we look back at the extraordinary history of women in aviation, we see smart, courageous women who overcame tremendous obstacles to become pioneering pilots. Women like Bessie Coleman, who in 1921 became the first black woman in the United States to obtain a pilot certificate (she had to go to France to do so); Beryl Markham, the first woman to fly solo from Europe to North America (and also wrote beautifully about flight); and many more.

We must not hinder the next generation of potential women pilots by leaving them ignorant of their opportunities. Rather, we must let our young women know that the sky beckons and that we’re here to help bring them into the proud ranks of the airline piloting profession.

Who knows, they might be your first officers some day!

This article is from the April 2015 issue of Air Line Pilot magazine, the Official Journal of the Air Line Pilots Association, International—a monthly publication for all ALPA members.

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