In the context of the 2nd World Summit on Gender Equality in Aviation, the challenges and opportunities of women in the sector will be addressed for 3 days
According to data published by the World Tourism Organization, 4.9% of the aviation workforce are women, compared to 54% of the tourism workforce. Furthermore, it is estimated that only 20% of the people who work in US aviation are women.
UNWTO supports the World Summit for Gender Equality organized by ICAO, International Civil Aviation Organization, which takes place from July 5 to 7 in Madrid, Spain, to get more women to fly and control air traffic, and can occupy a central place in world aviation.
At the opening of the event, the Minister of Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda of Spain, Raquel Sánchez, pointed out that there are currently many hostesses working in the industry, but few pilots, for which reason she has highlighted the need for greater integration of women in the aeronautical sector.
"I want to value the courage and ICAO to hold an event of this magnitude and with speakers representing the aeronautical industry and global society… I applaud these determined steps to end this gender bias that unfortunately is not unique to aviation”, said Sánchez.
And she referred to alarming figures, “Only 3% of the CEOs of the top 100 companies in the airline industry are women. There is only near parity in the HR department, where the percentage of women is 40%. There is only one sector where there are more women: cabin crew; which means that there are many crew members but few commanders or engineers. This is not just a problem for the airlines… The public sector must be at the forefront in this objective of achieving equality”.
In addition, she has shared through social networks: "This Government is firmly committed to gender equality in a context where extremism is returning, today I claim at the #GlobalAviationGenderSummit that we must continue working to break down the barriers that women have in the aviation industry”.
For his part, Salvatore Sciacchitano, president of the ICAO Council, pointed out at the opening of the event that, "with the increases in the percentage of women in aviation that have occurred in recent years, equality will not be seen by anyone present, and this It is unacceptable".
For the closing of the presentation, he stressed the number of jobs that aviation provides, close to 88 million. For this reason, the aim is to match the number of jobs that the industry offers with the percentage of women who access them, in order to conceive a much more inclusive and egalitarian sector in the future.
By March 2022, the ILO, International Labor Organization signed an agreement together with ICAO, to promote decent work, the achievement of the SDGs and the incorporation of women in civil aviation.
