Women in aviation on stage at Gatwick

Industry-wide efforts at making aviation more gender balanced to coincide with International Women’s Day yesterday, 8 March, were under the spotlight at a diversity conference at Gatwick last week.

Eleven leading aviation experts from the airport, Virgin, Airbus and the Royal Aeronautical Society gave talks at the event, for which Gatwick partnered with Women in Aviation and Aerospace Charter (WiACC).

Round-table discussions were held to help participants to share best practices and encourage more organisations to sign the Aerospace Charter, which sets out a range of commitments to work together for a more balanced and fair industry for women.

To help address the issue, Gatwick held a ‘Women in STEM’ day for daughters and their mothers to see the different aspects of the airport and opportunities available and also partners with a girls school in Horsham to promote STEM-related careers.

Gatwick development director Bronwen Jones said: “Greater gender diversity in aviation is important and we were delighted to see so many well-qualified delegates to discuss how, as an industry, we can work towards achieving this goal.

“Improvements in the gender balance are proven to lead to significantly better productivity rates in the workforce and this can only be beneficial for both the aviation and aerospace industries, their businesses, suppliers and passengers.”

www.gatwickairport.com

www.wiaacharter.com

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