Abstract:

The project PARE is a Coordination and Support Action (CSA) funded by the European Commission (EC) through the Horizon 2020 Programme. Its main aim is to assess the progress towards the 23 ACARE (Advisory Council for Aeronautics Research and Innovation in Europe) Goals stated in the Flightpath 2050 document and to propose measures to support their achievement. Within its activities, the PARE project proposes measures to attract more women (and young talent) to aeronautics in order to promote a more gender-balanced sector.

Even though women make up 41% of aviation employees, this percentage is deceptive because it reveals little of the skills distribution between the genders or the extent of female presence in senior roles. For example, even though there is a high share of female cabin crew, it is estimated that only around 4-5% of the world’s commercial airline pilots are female. The same goes to technical positions, which require Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) skills, which will likely skew towards men. Considering this, and also that the aviation sector is being widely affected by skills shortages, which are likely to get worse with the rapid sector’s growth and due to the current wholesale retirement, whereas is having a hard time making young people want to join, the implementation of interventions that could enable substantial and sustainable changes regarding the increase of young talent, particularly young women in the sector, is a priority.

Ultimately, it is also relevant to highlight that greater numbers of women in aeronautics should be regarded as not just as a numerical enlargement of the workforce but also as a broadening of the talent available.

There are several aspects that influence the participation of women in the aerospace sector and some start from an early stage. According to the Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT), the academic and/or career choices of young women are influenced by several factors, namely personal, cognitive and contextual and form gradually more consciously from childhood and primary school, through teenage and secondary school to adulthood and university (in line with the Life Span proposal, Life Span Theory). Therefore, interventions should start at an early life stage and consider the four factors from SCCT that help to identify and understand the reasons why female students pursue a university course: prior experience, social support, self-efficacy and outcome expectation.

This emphasises the importance and needs to implement changes in the educational context that can increase the interest of young women in STEM subjects, considering the enhancement of classroom activities and contents (hands-on and project-based learning), use of appropriate role models, consider the influence of the peers and the recruitment and retainment of students. As such, some of them are related to the increase of awareness of STEM education and career opportunities, social support and influences in childhood, mentoring relationships, positive experiences in classes, among others. The PARE project identifies some challenges and suggests some recommendations to be implemented in STEM educational context that can contribute to motivating young women to join the aerospace community.

Keywords:

Gender equality, STEM education, women in aviation, young talent attraction.