New IATA diversity campaign aims to add women airline employees

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is aiming to improve gender diversity among its member airlines with a new campaign, “25by2025,” the organization announced on Sept. 26.

The campaign sets several goals for its member airlines, the most important among them being:

• Increasing the number of women in senior positions at member airlines by either 25% against current metrics or to 25% overall by 2025;
• Increasing the number of women in under-represented jobs, such as pilots and operational positions, by either 25% against current metrics or to 25% overall by 2025; and
• Reporting key diversity metrics annually.

So far, China Eastern Airlines, Lufthansa Group and Qatar Airways have signed on to the campaign. While reporting around the issue of gender diversity in aviation has been inconsistent, IATA estimates women make up about 5% of pilots and 3% of airline CEOs globally – figures that demonstrate “the gender imbalance in the industry is clear,” IATA said.

The industry’s gender gap has come under increasing scrutiny over the past few years. Last year, the Wall Street Journal reported on a study indicating that among purchasing and supply chain professionals in the U.S., men earned an average of 29% more than their female coworkers in 2017. That gap widened for those with more industry experience, as men in the industry for between 15 and 19 years earned a whopping 48% more than women with the same experience.

Some airlines and other companies have since taken aim at the gender imbalance within their own organizations and the global supply chain. In June of this year, UPS launched workshops for women-owned small and mid-sized enterprises to help the organizations improve their access to global marketplaces. In February of this year, Alaska Airlines, which prides itself on gender diversity within the company and bills itself as the only airline “to achieve gender parity among independent board directors” – pledged to increase the number of African American women pilots flying for Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air over the next six years.