Don’t just say it, do it

It was notable for a number of reasons.

First, it was the first time a woman will lead the Iranian flag carrier, with Sharafbafi promoted from within having been director general of the airline’s research department and boasting a CV that includes being the first Iranian woman to achieve a PhD in aerospace. Moreover, it was the latest case of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani putting women into senior leadership posts in the Islamic republic that had traditionally been filled by males.

Second, Sharafbafi joins a very select group of women in charge of an airline, offering hope and encouragement to the thousands of women around the world with a passion for aviation that there is no ceiling to their career in the sector.

The dearth in female leadership in this industry is no better illustrated than at the recently concluded International Air Transport Association (IATA) annual general meeting in Cancun, Mexico, when the industry body’s Board of Governors posed for their annual photo. To borrow from social media, it was a #allmalepanel.

In fact, it took almost 70 years for IATA to have its first female member on the Board of Governors, when Sizakele Mzimela, then chief executive of South African Airways, was appointed in 2011. Mzimela is now the founder and chief executive of South African-based regional carrier Fly Blue Crane.

There are barely a handful of female airline chief executives. Some of the more well known include Dame Carolyn McCall at easyjet, Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao at VietJet and the chief executive of the Jetstar group of airlines Jayne Hrdlicka.

Statistics from Women in Aviation International show females made up about six per cent of all pilots in the United States in 2015. The figure was four per cent for flight engineers.

By contrast, cabin crew tend to be overwhelmingly female. This is repeatedly illustrated at promotional events, such as when Star Alliance celebrated its 20-year anniversary earlier this year. Just one airline brought a male member of staff for the group photo.

Are things changing?

Well yes according to Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce, who said at the company’s investor day presentations in May females now made up 35 per cent of the airline group’s senior managers.

The goal, Joyce said, was to lift the percentage of females in senior roles to parity with the company wide figure of 42 per cent through programs designed to highlight unconscious bias in the recruitment process, among other measures.

Indeed Qantas’s Diversity and Inclusion Council, which was created in 2012 and includes senior managers from across the airline, has as its three objectives building an inclusive culture and environment, gender inclusion and the company’s reconciliation action plan for 2015-2018.

Over at Jetstar, where alongside Hrdlicka is chief pilot Captain Georgina Sutton, having shortlists for positions comprise, where possible, a fifty-fifty gender split and ensuring recruitment advertisements were written with gender neutral language are part of its efforts to encourage more diversity among its staff.

Joyce, who has shown a determination to speak up on social issues such as marriage equality which has come at some personal cost including a man throwing a pie in his face while giving a speech in Perth in May, is part of industry group Male Champions of Change.

He said recently Qantas was active on social issues as it was the right thing to do. And judging by the list of companies who have pledged their support via the Australian Marriage Equality website, so does the bulk of corporate Australia.

As Joyce has said previously: “What’s also really important on this is that you don’t just say it, you do it. Your employees, your customers will know you are not serious on it unless you are out there publicly speaking how important this is.”

The lack of women in senior roles is in no way confined just to aviation, with the boardrooms of Australia a mostly male domain. And here too, there is progress.

Figures from the Australian Institute of Company Directors show that at the end of May 2017 females comprised 25.4 per cent of all board members, up from 8.3 per cent in 2009.

And as the June edition of Australian Aviation noted, in the almost 25 years since the Australian Defence Force fully opened the cockpit door to all, women have piloted C-130s, C-17s and Black Hawk helicopters and more.

But they have yet to crack the big one, to become fully qualified fast-jet pilots. That could be the ultimate glass ceiling to crack.