\u201cEvery day, women are already working across every part of the aviation system, and when those roles are visible, the next generation sees it and thinks \u2018that could be me\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some 41% of the aviation workforce is women but they are consistently under-represented in roles across the sector.<\/p>\n
Only 8.97% of Air New Zealand\u2019s planes are flown by women, and the statistics are worse for positions that involve specialised technical training, with 2% of the country\u2019s maintenance engineers being female.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we want a resilient aviation workforce for the decades ahead, we need to broaden who sees a place for themselves in this industry and build clear pathways to support women in making aviation a viable long-term career,\u201d Boyer said.<\/p>\n
Women are under-represented in certain roles across the aviation sector, particularly those that require long-term technical training. Photo \/ Air New Zealand<\/p>\n
A lack of emphasis on technical and operational roles is a major bar to improving representation in the sector, New Zealand Association of Women in Aviation (NZAWA) president Simone Boult said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAviation is often seen through the lens of the flight deck, but in reality, pilots are the end-users of an enormous feat of organisation that involves engineers, planners, air traffic controllers, safety specialists, dispatchers and many others.\u201d<\/p>\n
Minister for Women Nicola Grigg hoped today\u2019s special flight would succeed in showcasing these often-unnoticed jobs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen women are visible in leadership and technical positions, it unlocks career pathways and shapes how young people view their future and their place in it.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Grigg would have \u201cloved\u201d to be on the flight herself, she instead wished the air crew well with a cheerful \u201cgo girls!\u201d<\/p>\n
But Boult said support across aviation\u2019s \u201clong, complex career pathways\u201d remains a particular challenge for women.<\/p>\n
Air New Zealand acquired a Gender Tick in 2019 and has various programmes designed to encourage women to enter the industry, including the Women Inspiring the Next Generation (Wings) Network and the Women in Supply Chain and Engineering (Wise) Network.<\/p>\n
Broader schemes such as the Mang\u014dpare Pilot Cadetship support people from diverse backgrounds to become pilots, offering an accelerated training pathway.<\/p>\n
Each step towards progress is important and needs to be sustained, Boult said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf aviation is going to solve its skills challenges and build a resilient future, it needs to reflect the world it serves. That starts by showing what\u2019s possible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cEvery day, women are already working across every part of the aviation system, and when those roles are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[68,4376,26653,15033,5972,21139,70,31190,48879,26661,6628,1019,22638,117,111,43,139,69,16485,102,2834,80],"class_list":["post-317957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-air","tag-airline","tag-allfemale","tag-aviation","tag-day","tag-equality","tag-flight","tag-gender","tag-greater","tag-groundbreaking","tag-historic","tag-international","tag-marks","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-pushing","tag-with","tag-womens","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}