Women in aviation

Women in aviation are people who participate in flying and aviation professions, including piloting, engineering, air traffic control, and aerospace research.

Amelia Earhart: An American aviator who set flying records and disappeared during an attempted round-the-world flight in 1937. Her record flights and public advocacy made women pilots widely visible.
Women Airforce Service Pilots: A United States wartime civilian organization whose women pilots ferried and tested military aircraft from 1943 to 1944. Its members performed military aviation duties despite lacking military status.
Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972: A United States law that strengthened federal enforcement against employment discrimination, including discrimination based on sex. Its protections applied to aviation employers and helped challenge sex-based hiring barriers.
Gender gap in aviation: The underrepresentation of women in many aviation occupations, especially among commercial pilots and aircraft maintenance technicians. It describes the continuing imbalance that efforts to broaden participation seek to reduce.
Bessie Coleman: An American aviator who became the first Black woman and first Native American to earn a pilot’s license. She challenged both racial and gender barriers in early aviation.
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force: A British air force auxiliary formed in 1939 whose members served in ground and operational support roles. Women’s work in radar, signals, and operations helped sustain wartime air defense.
Title IX: A United States federal civil-rights law prohibiting sex discrimination in education programs receiving federal financial assistance. Equal access to education and training affects pathways into aviation professions.
Women in STEM fields: Women’s participation and representation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education and occupations. Aviation’s technical workforce shares pipeline and retention challenges with STEM fields.
Jacqueline Cochran: An American aviator who set speed and altitude records and led the Women Airforce Service Pilots during World War II. She organized wartime service that brought hundreds of women into military aviation.
Ninety-Nines: An international organization of women pilots founded in 1929 to provide mutual support and advance aviation. It created a durable professional network for women pilots.

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