The aviation industry has a problem. A shortage of airline pilots is causing a “constraint on capacity,” which translates to canceled flights and delays for travelers — especially on smaller airlines. There’s more: In early April, the FAA warned that a shortage of air traffic controllers is expected to gum up travel this summer, especially in the Northeast. And according to one industry observer, the lack of maintenance personnel in aviation is reaching crisis levels.
Aviation’s capacity woes underline a massive industry blind spot: Women remain largely grounded. Women make up less than 20% of those employed in all aviation jobs in the U.S., a figure that skews that high only because so many flight attendants and customer service agents are women. Only 4.6% of airline pilots are women, and aviation mechanics fare even worse, at 2.6%.
The low pilot numbers are especially discouraging compared with women’s progress in other professional fields. In 2021, women made up 37.1% of physicians in the U.S., up from 7.1% in 1970. In 2022, 38% of attorneys were women, up from 3% in 1970. Overall, women account for 51.8% of those employed in professional, management and related fields.
