INTHESPOTLIGHT By Jen Boyer
Allison McKay, CEO, Women in Aviation
International The urgent need to attract women to, and retain them in, rotorcraft careers.
W
ITH THE EXCEPTION OF FLIGHT ATTEN- dants, women make up less than 20% of the aviation workforce. In an effort to
improve this statistic, the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 mandated the creation of a Women in Aviation Advisory Board (WIAAB). The board was formed to provide independent rec- ommendations to the FAA on how to encourage more women to pursue aviation careers and how to retain women in the industry. Thirty female aviation profession- als were selected to join the board in 2020.
“Men don’t ask whether they can juggle a family and an aviation career. What are we doing that causes women to feel they can’t?”
For the next two years, the group worked to review, WATCH
The 1st Woman to Pilot the AW609
research, and identify strategies to overcome barriers to women in aviation, culminating in its March 2022 report, Breaking Barriers for Women in Aviation: Flight Plan for the Future. The report highlights key obstacles standing between women and aviation careers as well as ways to engage young women early, foster a passion for aviation, and support women in entering and remaining in the industry.
Of the 30 women on the WIAAB, the vast majority represented the commercial airline market, and not one was employed in the helicopter industry. But one did possess rotorcraft industry experience: Allison McKay. McKay applied to the WIAAB in 2019, when she was VP of Helicopter Foundation International (HFI), an arm of HAI. Before joining HFI in 2015, she served as Safran’s public affairs director for 13 years. By the time the
22 ROTOR JUNE 2022
board’s members were chosen, McKay had moved to nonprofit Women in Aviation International (WAI) as CEO. There, McKay directs programs that expose girls to aero- space careers and provide education and professional development resources for women working in all aspects of aviation.
ROTOR: What did you and the other members of the WIAAB set out to do? McKay: Our charge was to identify barriers to women’s entry into the aviation field, give recommendations on how to address those obstacles, and then address the issue of retention—how do we keep women in the industry once they’ve decided on that career path? I don’t think our findings surprised anybody on the board in terms of the fundamental issues about getting more women interested in aviation. Female representation in the industry has historically been so low that a lot of times it’s hard to find some- body, a mentor or someone you may know growing up, who’s in the industry and can provide you with the path- way or information you need to decide what you want to do with your career. Then again, the culture of this industry has been a
deterrent to keeping women in it. Whether women have a passion for aviation or not, we as an industry don’t really help women grow throughout their careers, even though we send them messages that we welcome them in aviation.
Some of the recommendations we made, especially
for retention, are things that not only the FAA and DOT [US Department of Transportation] are responsible for, but that the industry as a whole can adopt to create a culture conducive to keeping both men and women employed and growing in their careers.
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