WIAAC launches Resource Hub for achieving greater gender balance across the aviation and aerospace industries

The Women in Aviation and Aerospace Charter (WIAAC) has launched a Resource Hub on its website to provide organizations and individuals with a freely available and highly accessible source of practical advice and expert commentary on achieving greater gender balance across the aviation and aerospace industries.

The Resource Hub currently contains more than 100 articles, tools and other resources, which have been organized into 11 categories: 1) Inspiring the Next Generation; 2) Preparing for Take-Off; 3) Creating Opportunities; 4) Fair Recruitment; 5) Fairly Rewarded; 6) Creating a Great Place to Work; 7) Developing Talent; 8) Career Planning for Success; 9) Promotion; 10) Flying High as Part of the Leadership Team; 11) The Whole Journey.

It is expected to become an invaluable resource for individuals at every stage of their career, as well as for HR departments, career consultants, senior executives and mentors.

The contents of the Resource Hub have been provided by a wide variety of people and organizations throughout the aviation and aerospace industries, including the Royal Aeronautical Society, Abstract, ACAS East Midlands and Women on Boards UK, the last of whom has recently become a supporting organization of the Charter.

The Resource Hub follows the successful launch of the Korn Ferry Propelling a Gender Balanced Industry Report in November 2020, which analyzed the lack of gender balance in the aviation and aerospace sector. Additional research conducted by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Women in STEM, and the International Society of Women Airline Pilots (ISA) states that only 3% of airline CEOs in the world’s top 100 airline groups are women, only 5% of the world’s pilots are women, and only 10% of engineering professionals are female. This research reinforces key findings from the Korn Ferry report, such as the importance of ‘Investment not Tokenism’ and the need for sustainable and coordinated investment towards reshaping attraction, recruitment and progression within the aviation and aerospace sectors.

Sumati Sharma and Jacqueline Sutton, Co-Chairs of the Charter, said: “This Resource Hub is a natural next step for the Charter. Since 2018, we have built a strong network of more than 220 signatories that share our commitment to change. By creating the Resource Hub, we can now offer current and future signatories a wealth of accessible content to refer to when developing an effective and long- lasting diversity and inclusion strategy. As the aviation and aerospace industry continues to persevere through the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, we hope that the Resource Hub inspires more companies and organizations to commit to rebuilding a fairer and more balanced industry for the future.”