Embry-Riddle President Calls for Women in Aviation Solution

Increasing the ranks and stature of women across theaviation industry as well as all science, technology, engineering andmathematics (STEM) fields should be considered an urgent top priority requiringinnovative solutions, including university initiatives with industry andprivate collaborators, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University President P. BarryButler wrote in Aviation Week & Space Technology.

Today’s aviation industry leaders and STEM educators clearlyrecognize the need to recruit and retain more female aviation executives,pilots and aircraft maintenance professionals, Butler said, but findingeffective solutions to the problem will require a sharper focus. “Equalrepresentation is so much more than a goal,” he wrote. “If we are to sustainand grow the economic vitality and innovation of the industry we serve, it isnonnegotiable.”

The search for solutions could be informed by lessonslearned in other fields that have managed to widen the talent pipeline, Butlersaid. While professional programs such as law, medicine, pharmacy and dentistryhave made great strides toward achieving equal gender representation, only 4.4percent of airline pilots are women.

Access to education and licensing needed for success hashelped women break into many traditionally male fields, he added, yet the firstfemale pilots for U.S. passenger airlines – Emily Howell Warner and BonnieTiburzi Caputo – were not hired until 1973.

In aviation and STEM, Butler said, “Progress has been slowand inconsistent … The word `professional’ remained synonymous with men fordecades, but that changed in other industries. It’s time for it to change inour industry, too. We don’t have 50 years to catch up.”

Noting that Embry-Riddle’s strategic plan emphasizes theneed to get young women excited about careers in aviation and STEM, Butler saidthat progress “is not a solo act” and will require the support of industry aswell as of private collaborators and supporters.

With support from an alumna donation, for example,Embry-Riddle recently ramped up its outreach efforts, launching a program thatpairs paid student mentors and alumnae with incoming female AeronauticalScience students who are training to become pilots. In addition, Boeing,Southwest Airlines and FedEx support Embry-Riddle scholarship programs intendedto help attract and educate more women and other students from underrepresentedgroups.

“Embry-Riddle is making such investments because ourindustry cannot thrive or innovate if almost half the population is not at thetable,” Butler wrote. “More scholarships are needed, as are more networking andinternship opportunities, especially at the K-12 level. In addition, despitethe amazing programs that exist to get more girls into airplanes for a firstride, we have not yet, as a sector, figured out how to keep them in ourpipeline when those aircraft land.”