Women in Aviation: THE SKY IS NOT THE LIMIT

Categories: Airlines

Women in Aviation: THE SKY IS NOT THE LIMIT

By Zenifer Khaleel

Contrary to prevailing notions that flying is a male dominated terrain, women have been making a mark in aviation since the Wright Brother’s second flight in 1903. Here we speak to a few exemplary women who have conquered the skies by making an indelible mark in the aviation industry.

Mireille Goyer
Founder and President
Institute for Women of Aviation Worldwide (iWOAW), Canada

Mireille’s advent into the world of aviation had quite a few detours. Having studied math and physics at the University of Poitiers, France, she switched to computer graphic design at the University of Los Angeles, United States. Her first job was in IT. In 1990, she took an introductory flight and fell in love with flying. This began her professional pilot career as an instructor and simultaneously pivoted her IT skills to aviation course development.

In 2010, as the March 8 centennial of the world’s first female pilot license was approaching, she was shocked to realize that nobody was planning to celebrate it. “I called onto pilots to Fly It Forward®, to invite women to explore aviation and experience flight in celebration,” she recalls. Pilots from 36 countries responded. This initial call to action turned into the annual Women Of Aviation Worldwide Week (WomenOfAviationWeek.org) celebration in 2011.

Today, she is the Founder and President of iWOAW, an organization that motivates and supports women outreach events across the globe and advocates for the inclusion of women in all the facets of the air and space industry. It also produces research to help industry stakeholders attract and retain female employees and publishes material to inform women and girls of their options and help them face integration challenges.

“We have nearly 500,000 girls of all ages across 53 countries with opportunity to try aviation careers, hands-on, and many are now working in the industry,” she says.

But there was a time when Mireille had to convince herself that she was qualified and competent for a career in aviation as she did not fit the classic pilot profile in many ways . I was petite woman with eyesight issues and English was my second language,” she says. She attributes her success to repeatedly taking on new challenges and overpreparing to ensure that things would go well.

“An enduring challenge for women in the industry is the outsider-at-first-sight issue due to the industry’s visible lack of gender balance. Walking into a school, at an industry tradeshow booth, or into the workplace, most assume that you are the wife of an aviation professional, not the professional herself. That gets even more frustrating as your expertise and investment into your career grows. It is a known reason for women walking away after a while. Unfortunately, there is not much we can do about that other than significantly improve the number of women in the male dominated sectors of the industry with massive and effective outreach efforts, something that I spearheaded in 2010 with Women Of Aviation Worldwide Week and the Fly It Forward® Challenge. I am glad that more and more industry stakeholders and associations are following the lead,” she says.

Dr Rita Tareq Aljadiri
GCAA Examination Manager / Faculty – Aviation Maintenance
Higher Colleges of Technology, Dubai

Dr Rita is an Aircraft Maintenance Engineering Lecturer and the GCAA General civil aviation authority Examination Manager at the Higher colleges of Technology Dubai Campus. She is also training to be a light sport aircraft pilot and looking forward to gaining an LSA pilot license and maybe becoming a flight instructor one day.

She holds a bachelor’s degree from Emirates Aviation University in Electronic Engineering with a focus on Aviation Electronics. She has two master’s degrees, one from Coventry University with a specialization in aviation management, and one from Middlesex University with a specialization in education (coaching and mentoring). She also holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Coventry University specializing in Energy harvesting systems.

In her role as an aircraft maintenance engineering lecturer, she teaches students about repairs, troubleshooting problems, conducting inspections, and making upgrades to aircraft. “ It is a combination of theoretical and practical knowledge and I get a lot of satisfaction from performing a job that requires constant effort and focus,” says Rita, who has been living in UAE for 22 years.

It was not easy to work in a male-dominated field as she had to work harder to prove herself and get treated the same as her male counterparts. “Sometimes I felt like my ideas are not taken seriously in a meeting or I was cut off by a male colleague while trying to make a point. So the main challenge for woman in aviation is to gain respect and acceptance among our peers.”

To combat this problem, Rita advocates mentorship and support from men in senior positions who are willing to spend the time and energy to advise, coach, and promote women along their career paths and into the ranks of leadership.

“Although things have changed in the past few years, especially in UAE, there is still a long way till we can say that there is true equality. However, by bringing awareness and educating others about these challenges, we can pave the way for future generations and create a safe space for young ambitious women in male-dominated fields such as aviation,” she says.

Noof Omar
Emirates Airlines
Youngest Emirati Pilot

Inspired by one of her relatives who was also a pilot, Noof started researching on aviation as a career choice and found that it suited her adventurous personality to a T. After graduating from Al Mawakeb school in 2014, she joined the National Cadet Pilot Program in Emirates Airlines to obtain her Airline Transport Pilot License and become a commercial pilot. Today, after 5 years of flying the Boeing 777, she states the best thing about her job is “having a flying office that has a different view every day.”

Noof had to face many setbacks in her soaring journey as people would tell her that being a pilot meant she would not have a life or be able to get married or start a family. But her family became her pillar of support.

According to her being a pilot needs mental and physical preparation as the job starts four hours before departure time which could be at any hour the day or night. Gender stereotypes in aviation haven’t affected her much. “It is the job itself that is challenging for any human being. It needs leadership, knowledge, flexibility and courage. A captain once told me to remain open to growth and that would make me a skillful pilot. In fact, in the aviation world we say you learn something in every flight” she says.

Noof is elated that as the youngest Emirati pilot, she is perceived as an inspiration for the younger generation. “The UAE’s rapid growth plays an important role in the modern change of career choices. The opportunities provided by the country are countless when it comes to changing careers and finding new paths. It has helped us discover new fields and set higher visions. I am forever grateful for our leaders who believe in their youth and provide them with opportunities to achieve the impossible like Emirates National Cadet Pilot Program.”

Susanna Sundberg
Airbus pilot

Her first fascination with space and airplanes began when she embarked on her first flight journey. That’s when she realised that being a pilot was a “normal job” which she could actually do. When she was 18 years old, she read about pilot careers in school and even took a private lesson on a Cessna to check if flying was “her thing”. She then contacted Lund University School of Aviation in Sweden and started her ab-initio training in 2001.

She got her first job as commercial pilot 2007. In between she worked as flight instructor and flight operations assistant at Operations Control Center. “My flight instructors from flight school are still my biggest support and influencers. These guys had careers in the air force and did everything they could to teach us how to fly, but also how to stay humble and never take anything for granted. Without them I would never have had the chance to do what I do today,” she says.

Today she flies regular flights and charter flights out of Brussels, Belgium to Europe, Asia and Northern Africa. “I work 100% and usually spend 5-10 night in outstation,” she says.

But the major challenge is to balance work, family life and social life. “I’m away quite a lot from home and I have a daughter Olivia who is quite small. It’s not always easy, but it’s part of the job,” she says,

Susanna states the best part about her job is “to see the world from above, to fly amazing aircrafts and to visit new destinations. My biggest hobbies in life are travel and photography, and my job gives me the opportunity to do everything I dreamt of.”

Captain Zoya Agarwal
Commercial pilot and commander
Air India

The youngest woman to pilot the Boeing-777, first woman to command an all-female cockpit crew on the longest commercial flight over the North Pole…these are some of Captain Zoya Agarwal’s illustrious list of achievements in her career. Zoya, who has relentlessly followed the path of her “touching the stars” since a very young age, is now also pursuing an MBA degree at Columbia Business School, where she is currently a Feldberg fellow and Forte Fellow.

She is a mentor to many young girls and hopes to make an impact as an ambassador to women by fostering diversity, equality and inclusivity at workplaces to promote the growth of women in key leadership roles.

In 2013, Zoya made World Aviation history by becoming the youngest ever female pilot to command a Boeing-777, the world’s largest twin jetliner. In January 2021, Zoya became the first female commander to fly one of the world’s longest flights over the North Pole, between San Francisco and Bengaluru, with an all-female flight crew. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she was chosen to lead the evacuation flights operation by the Indian Government to bring back around 14,800 stranded Indians from 12 countries across 64 Air India flights.

In 2021, Zoya began working as a spokesperson for Generation Equality with UN women. In 2022, she became the first female Pilot from India to be featured in the prestigious San Francisco Luis A. Turpen Aviation Museum.

Zoya’s accomplishments have been acknowledged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India in his address to the nation, while also being featured in various media and publications – namely Forbes, BBC, CNN, Cosmopolitan , Bazaar, Grazia and others.

Zoya has been passionate about inspiring future generations as a TED speaker, where she has made 13 appearances which focus on breaking the chain of the impossible to ” I’m possible”. Zoya has discussed the struggles of overcoming the patriarchy during childhood, chronicling her journey from not speaking English to eventually shattering the glass ceiling as a record breaking pilot in a male dominated profession.

As part of Zoya’s vision to change the world, she is driven to empower young girls and women towards realizing the potential that rests within half of the global population, with a focus on female success in STEM and an eye towards climate change activism. She has had the opportunity to shape her vision by building an NGO, “Udan Pari (Flying Angel) –Giving Wings to Dreams”, to impart education upon young girls.

Her goal now is to expand her horizons into investment banking, finance and management to acquire the business acumen required to lead organizations, while empowering young girls who follow her progress through her high visibility social media platforms.

Zenifer Khaleel