Five leading aviation and aerospace organisations have trained their collective aim on a global study intended to shatter the glass ceiling holding back women.
The study will be spearheaded by the Aerospace Industries Association, Airports Council International, International Air Transport Association, International Aviation Women’s Association, and Korn Ferry. The research, which will hopefully be made public in the second quarter of next year, mainly strives to identify and promote means by which the industry can effectively recruit and advance women in leadership roles, according to a statement.
It added that women had made great strides in many professional fields and industries but there remained a gap at the leadership level. Justification for this view can be found in alarmingly skewed figures that have revealed only a quarter of employees in the American aerospace industry are female.
The statement also stressed that an even smaller percentage of women found themselves in leadership roles. A primary focal point of the joint fact-finding exercise will be to flesh out “the root causes of any barriers to advancement that may have hindered progress to date”.
The study will also serve to underscore “practices and policies which have been successful in promoting gender diversity in leadership”.
