Since companies were forced to share their gender pay gaps results publically, many people have been shocked to learn just how big this gap is in many different airlines. As with many other sectors, there are much less female pilots than male pilots, which is one of the highest paid jobs in the industry.
This might leave you wondering if female pilots are paid less than their male colleagues, and even how vast the difference in the number of employees between male and female staff members really is. We are going to look at both of these things in this article to help answer your questions.
Do Female Pilots Get Paid Less?
Unfortunately, in many places, female pilots do get paid less than male pilots. Something that is interesting to know is that when it comes to gender pay gaps, airlines are some of the worst offenders. As well as pilots, other staff sectors are also affected.
Easy jet hired more female pilots quite recently, which brought its number of female staff up to a mere 5%, but this did nothing to stop the gender pay gap widening, as women were added into lower-earning flight attendant jobs.
On average, it is thought that male employees at airlines earn an average of 54.1% more than their female colleagues, and for a while, this number was increasing.
The reason that airlines are most likely going to have a wide pay gap is due to the fact that high-paying pilot jobs are dominated in the industry by men. Women will make up a bigger proportion of cabin crew on average, and they are paid much less. So, the biggest part of the problem is that there are not enough female pilots.
It became a rule that UK companies with more than 250 employees now have to report their gender gap figures, and among the first reports were shocking results.
The largest gender pay gap for an airline was with Ryanair, who had a 71.8% gap. Following up from Ryanair was EasyJet, who had a 45% pay gap. However, when it comes to EasyJet, men and women that are in the same roles are paid equally. This gap can easily be explained by the high number of main pilots vs the low number of female pilots.
How Many Black Female Pilots Are There?
When it comes to black female pilots, the figures are even more shocking. As it stands, there are less than 150 professional black female pilots in the United States that hold airline transport pilot, commercial, military or certificated flight instructor certificates. These women make up less than 1% of all professional pilots in the United States.
Some of these women have made it their mission to improve these figures, and have started a nonprofit organization that is called Sisters of the Skies. This organization will track the number of female black pilots, and it has been created to inspire women of color to take an interest in aviation. Those that are interested can be paired up with pilots that are already qualified.
Out of the 13,000 pilots that are in the United States, only 900 of them are women. Unfortunately, only 17 of these women are black women, and there are only two black women captains. This is something that was stated by Captain Theresa Claiborne, who was the first African-American female pilot in the Air Force.
The only major airline that has partnered with the Sisters of the Skies organization is Alaska Airlines, and they wish to increase their percentage of female black pilots.
How Many Female Pilots Are There in the World?
In the entire world, there are only around 7500 female pilots in comparison to more than 50,000 male pilots. It roughly works out that only around 5.18% of pilots are female, but it could be slightly less than this. Many people will be shocked by these figures, but this is the reality for many airline industries.
The biggest thing that affects the imbalance when it comes to the gender pay gap is the lack of female pilots in comparison to male pilots. There are not enough female pilots to help to close the gap. In order to work towards lessening these gaps, airlines would need to hire more female pilots, which many of them aim to do.
More recently, the number of female pilots is slowly starting to increase, but not enough to make a huge difference. However, these numbers are expected to continue to improve over time. The more female pilots there are, the smaller the gender pay gap will be.
Who is the Most Famous Female Pilot?
One of the most famous pilots is someone that you have probably heard of, and her name is Amelia Earhart. She is known around the world for being the very first woman to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean without stopping, and she also made her way across North America. She achieved this accomplishment at a young age, and continued to strive for great things throughout her short life.
Amelia was born in Atchison, Kansas, and she developed a passion for adventure at a very young age. She began to gain flying experience in her early twenties, and by 1928, she became the first female passenger to cross the Atlantic by airplane. At the time, she was accompanied by Wilmer Stultz, who was a pilot. She became very well known after this.
It was in 1932 that Amelia Earhart made a non-stop transatlantic flight, and this is when he became the first woman to do so. She went on to receive the United States Distinguished Flying Cross for her achievement.
Amelia attempted to become the very first female to complete a circumnavigational flight of the globe in 1937 in a Lockheed Model 10-E Electra. She traveled with a navigator called Fred Noonan, and unfortunately, they both disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean near Howland Island.
The last place that either of them was seen was in New Guinea on the 2nd of July in 1937, which would have been the last stop before they reached Howland Island, so close to the end of their journey.
It is presumed that she lost her life in the Pacific at just 40 years old, during the flight. After she and Noonan had been gone for a year and a half, they were officially declared dead.
Nobody knows exactly what happened to them to this day, and people are still trying to figure it out almost 80 years later. Amelia Earhart is still of great importance to female aviators today.
