Finding Footing: WOMEN IN AVIATION

Women and minorities courageous enough to enter the field of aviation often find themselves face-to-face with difficulties while navigating the ins and outs of an industry that, historically, has not supported them. Female pilot students of color, Nataly GijonGarcia and Amanda Villapudua, discuss what it feels like to jump into the turbulent industry where the shifting tides could mean major change for future female pilots.

STORY BY VITTINA IBANEZ

Women have been largely outnumbered in the aviation industry since the Wright Brothers put a plane into the sky back in 1903. Over a hundred years later, women make up only about 5% of pilots in the United States, with just 1% of those being women of color.

Piloting proves to be a difficult occupation for women to uptake. Female students often lack support and mentorship, but these challenges do little to discourage those like 19-year-old Nataly Gijon-Garcia.

“I’m like one of the only females in my classes. The ratio is very low,” Gijon-Garcia said. “There isn’t much help for women. There’s so much information out there, you don’t know what to pick or who to listen to or what to follow. And just being a woman makes everything harder because there are so many males.”

Still, she continues with her studies fueled by the love of her family and the goal of being the inspirational figure for other young women who wish to pursue the field — the figure she, herself, did not get the privilege of having until recently.

“All my pilots have been males, until last year when I heard on a call that the pilot was a female,” Gijon-Garcia explained. “I bawled when I saw her. I saw myself in her. She paved the way, helping me be here. Most of the people that I see are white and get the privilege, get the help that they need. They get favored a lot more than women or a person of color. A big motivation for me is paving the way for other people.”

Amanda Villapudua, 30, believes this is a strong contributor to the lack of female pilot students, and thus, pilots: Young girls don’t have the figures in the field to look up to. They seldom have mentors to help guide them.

“That’s what it comes down to. It’s exposure,” she said. “We need to let them know that there is no gender in this field.”

Like Gijon-Garcia, Villapudua has also had her share of experiences with gender inequality as a student pilot. A photography graduate from Cal State Long Beach, Villapudua has been studying to become a pilot for seven years and has been a flight attendant for just as long. Recently, she wrapped up her time as an attendant and pivoted her focus to taking the wheel. Because of her experience, she’s witnessed the gender inequality in piloting firsthand.

“I can tell you right now, I’ve never seen a Black female pilot. I’ve seen a couple Asian pilots, and I don’t think I’ve seen any Latinos/Latinas at all as far as pilots go,” Villapudua said. “I can remember every female pilot I’ve flown with, and that’s just how few I’ve seen.”

According to a survey of female pilots by aviation educator Penny Rafferty Hamilton, the top barrier for women in the field is the lack of money for general training. While a single flight lesson costs hundreds of dollars, the first step in becoming a pilot requires a certain amount of flight time and training sessions — a total amounting in the thousands. Villapudua is fortunate to have found ways past her financial obstacles.

“I took out loans for CSULB. I was determined not to get loans again,” she explained. “I’ve been trying to get scholarships but haven’t had luck, but I’ve been getting help from my husband and at work, too. They’re always giving us different bonuses, so I’m taking that money and putting it straight into flight school.”

On top of that, official legislation barred women from the field for years.

“Looking at the history of flight attending and piloting, predominantly attending was an all-female job and piloting was all males, and it was completely exclusive until not too long ago,” Villapudua explained. “They didn’t allow females. That was it. It was an all-male job.”

But women and minorities alike are now being called forth by the aviation industry. There’s one big reason for this: the pilot shortage.

Gijon-Garcia said this shortage is happening because the age-old industry is failing to fill the places being left vacant.

“A lot of commercial pilots are retiring, so they need more people, “ Gijon-Garcia said. “When the pandemic hit, the airline industry just went down. A lot of airlines went bankrupt. But people are starting to fly again, and there aren’t proficient pilots.”

By international law, commercial pilots must retire at 65, and during the pandemic, companies bestowed severance packages to pilots close to retiring since there were, at the time, too many. Now that people are flying again, those empty spaces have caused thousands of flight cancellations, delays and rising prices all over the nation. Experts believe this shortage is only going to get worse, but the solution lies at flight schools. Recently, the industry’s biggest powerhouses created new programs to help train women and minorities in aviation to diversify the field and resolve the pilot shortage.

“Airlines are offering cadet programs where you give normal school tuition — like 50K — to get trained by the airlines, and then you’re guaranteed a job after,” Gijon-Garcia said.

“At American Airlines, Delta, United, they’re looking to hire at least 50% of their workforce to be women or minority groups,” Villapudua said. There are even programs like the Experimental Aircraft Association’s Young Eagles to show children as young as 7 the possibilities of piloting. Marc Whistman, a member of the EAA, is a private pilot training to apply for commercial airlines. His daughter, Este, already has big dreams of becoming a pilot at the tender age of 6.

“I took her flying,” Whistman said. “I think she started when she was about 4.”

For now, Este is just a passenger, but she’ll be able to test for a student pilot license at 16. Only time will tell whether or not the programs designed to diversify aviation will provide Este and the many young women like her with figures of inspiration to look up to in the field.