Paving the Runway: Building Inclusion for Women in Aerospace and Aviation
Lieutenant-Colonel Melissa Reyes, section head at Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Space Systems, discusses the importance of inclusion for the aviation and aerospace industries with fellow panelists Wendy Cukier, Sandra Howell, and Piyush Gandhi.
On March 8, 2023, the Downsview Aerospace and Innovation Research (DAIR) hub marked International Women’s Day by highlighting the role of women in aviation and aerospace with an event, The Cost of Not Paving the Runway. The event was co-hosted with Women in Aerospace (WIA) Canada and De Havilland Canada (DHC) at Centennial College’s Downsview campus in Toronto. More than 150 people attended in person, with another 150 joining online. The audience heard about the progress that women in aviation and aerospace have made, as well as the challenges they still face.
Dr. Wendy Cukier, founder and academic director of the Diversity Institute (DI) in the Ted Rogers School of Management at Toronto Metropolitan University, gave the keynote speech. Dr. Cukier began by saying “When we think about where the aerospace and aviation industries are, we think about how far we have come, but women pilots are still the exceptions.” She noted that more than 70% of the aerospace industry’s workforce are men, and that barriers for women in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), like consistently low enrolment of women in engineering programs, remain an important reason for the lack of women in aerospace and aviation. Another reason is that equity diversity and inclusion (EDI) practices are still unevenly implemented across both industries, with little evidence of EDI training in many companies.
Dr. Cukier then pointed out several promising initiatives created by aviation and aerospace companies, like mentorship programs and employee resource groups. “The rate of change and the imagination of this sector is so immense,” she said. She noted that women entrepreneurs are getting into the aviation supply chain and starting aviation startups. Teara Fraser, CEO of Iskwew Air and founder of Elibird Aero, is just one example of how women are making a place for themselves in aviation and aerospace. Research by DI on the aerospace industry shows that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play an important role. As Dr Cukier told the audience, one of the best ways to support women-owned SMEs is by paying attention to “supplier diversity, which is the best way to put your money where your mouth is.”
As Canada becomes more diverse, Dr. Cukier said that the aerospace and aviation industries must become more diverse or risk misunderstanding their customer base, given “your end customers are going to be diverse.”
Wendy Cukier speaking on International Women's Day at the Downsview Aerospace Innovation and Research hub.
Following the keynote address, there was a panel discussion featuring industry leaders: Sandra Howell, a vice president at De Havilland Aircraft; Piyush Gandhi, a vice president at Presage Group Inc.; and Lieutenant-Colonel Melissa Reyes, section head at Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Space Systems. The panelists were asked about the experiences of women in the aviation and aerospace industries and how EDI can be better integrated into both industries.
“As a woman growing up in aviation, one of the challenges I had was that I had to work harder to prove myself. I didn’t have to give 100%; it was 150%,” Howell said. Reyes echoed her sentiment, saying that when she joined the military in 1989, “You had to show the guys you can do it and do it better.”
“When I first joined the military in 1989, they didn’t have many visible minorities,” Reyes said. ”I mispronounced my name so I could fit in,” she said about some of the challenges she faced in her career as a result of her intersectional identity. Howell noted the importance of challenging stereotypes: “My guidance counsellor never said you can be a pilot; he said you could be a nurse or be a model.” She added that she thinks women are some of the best pilots because they pay attention to detail and have no ego.
Not only are women underrepresented in aviation and aerospace, stereotypical views of gender roles continue to impact women’s careers. “At a table of eight executives, there was only one woman, and she was asked to take the notes,” Gandhi said. “I gasped and she said no.” To change perceptions of gender roles Gandhi said “it is really important to do tangible things to bring women into airlines…making people feel like they belong.” Howell said that leadership support for women is critical. “I have colleagues around the boardroom table who are supportive and want to get more women into leadership.”
“Change takes patience, but change also takes courage,” Gandhi added.