How to inspire girls to walk with confidence and reach for the sky

have you heard

about the younger wright sibling you

know the wright brothers

wilbur and orville wright who are

credited with the first airplane flight

well there’s a younger sibling who’s

often forgotten about

catherine wright and in 1909

she became one of the first females to

fly

why because her brothers wanted to

make the point that even young ladies

could travel through the air

as easily as in motor cars

why haven’t we heard this story and why

in 2021 are there only seven percent

of pilots who are female

there are many theories and opinions as

to what are holding women back from

flying

some speculate it’s the cost to learn

but

men pay the same amount some say it’s

schedules

or lifestyle but female flight

attendants have similar schedules

so is it discrimination maybe

or perhaps it’s lack of good role models

when i was a little girl i wanted to be

a ballerina

with my pink tutu and i wanted everyone

to call me pinky

that is until i watched a helicopter

land at my school

in the second grade and i was

hooked i just wanted to be up there

and nothing was going to stop me not

even when my high school guidance

counselor

laughed at me when i told him i wanted

to be a pilot

i went off to flight school afraid i

wasn’t smart enough

i was dyslexic with numbers and i wasn’t

great in math or science

but thankfully my dreams were stronger

than my fears

and as it turns out you don’t need to be

a rocket scientist

to be a pilot in the u.s

there are six hundred sixty four

thousand five hundred and sixty five

pilots

there are 52 740 pilots

who are female there are a hundred

thousand pilots

with a commercial pilot’s license that

just means i get paid to fly doing grand

canyon tours

dropping skydivers or towing banners

but only seven thousand pilots identify

as female

that’s seven percent

that’s crazy put a hundred pilots

in a room and count out seven

there are 25 percent of male pilots with

an atp license

atp means airline transport pilot it’s

the highest license obtainable

and these are the pilots qualified to

fly for the airlines

or in business aviation i am one of only

four and a half percent

of female pilots with an atp license

but the real kicker is that only one

percent

of these females sit in the left seat

flying as captain

one day i really started to look at this

problem of why there are so few female

pilots

and as i thought about this problem it

occurred to me that i was just looking

at it all wrong

instead i needed to flip it upside down

and start asking what it was that made

the seven percent of pilots

successful i wanted to find the secret

sauce

because if i could find it then i could

share that with others

specifically my two daughters and i

could help them be successful at

achieving their dreams

so i set out to interview 50 female

pilots

in the spring of 2020 when most of the

world was in quarantine

i was in my basement office calling

pilots i didn’t know

and asking some pretty personal

questions

and i discovered the secret sauce there

are three traits that all of these

pilots have in common

one they have confidence two they face

their fears

three they have support systems

the definition of confidence is having

trust in one’s ability

when i asked these pilots where they

thought their confidence came from

they certainly didn’t think they were

born with it but it developed throughout

the years by playing sports

having experience or even failure

as it turns out failure is a huge

motivator to build confidence on

and this blew my mind because we are not

raised to view failure as a positive

thing

fake it till you make it was also

another common answer

this is cj she’s a first officer for

united airlines

she’s based in guam and she flies the

south pacific routes to places

i can’t even pronounce but she’s also

flown seaplanes

in the caribbean skydivers in dubai

and intelligence surveillance and recon

missions

in afghanistan and west africa

she’s pretty cool when i asked cj where

her confidence comes from

she replied i fake it i am scared of

most of the things i do

but i am more afraid of missing out on

the next adventure

these women have had to work hard and be

better than their male counterparts

they know their airplane systems three

levels deep

and they study twice as hard to have the

confidence necessary

to command the aircraft

this is katrina she’s an international

captain on a gulfstream 650.

she’s also the assistant chief pilot at

her fortune 500 flight department

katrina’s motto is know yourself what

you want

what you stand for and don’t be afraid

to go after it

this is a perfect example of what

confidence looks like

there’s an underlying fear of being a

female in a male-dominated industry

why because we still face harassment

workplace discrimination and wage

inequality

one of the scariest moments of my career

was having to tell my chief pilot i was

pregnant

my husband’s at work getting high fives

and i’m afraid i’m gonna get fired

there’s a stigma attached that if you

make it in a man’s world

you better not get pregnant and quit

time and time again during these

interviews i heard stories of the

adversity

that these pilots faced whether it was

someone saying

girls can’t fly or they weren’t allowed

to fly because they were pregnant

sometimes it was dealing with a handsy

examiner or an inappropriate flight

instructor

or the fair was more on internal like

thinking they didn’t have the correct

brain

for aviation or they weren’t taking

seriously by their peers

this is susie she’s a five foot tall

puerto rican who flies the kc-135

but she went to the air force academy to

become a lawyer

and it’s also where she met her now

husband who isn’t training to be a pilot

when susie soloed an airplane she knew

she could spend the rest

of her life flying when she told her

boyfriend this

he said if you become a pilot then we’re

never going to see each other

guess what susie told him she said well

then you better get another job

susie’s my hero

i am so glad that these women did not

let fear

change the course of their dreams

because a hundred percent

of the women i interviewed were

successful

because they didn’t quit no matter

what having a support system is also a

major key to success

whether it’s a friend parent commander

or roommate

but having people around you who say yes

instead of no is what helped these women

earn their wings 78

of pilots said they had a mentor

and 69 percent of pilots said they had a

father figure who played an influential

role

in them becoming a pilot

my favorite story is about margaret’s

dad

when margaret was 16 years old she was

dating a guy a couple years older than

her

you know where this is going right

margaret’s dad wasn’t too fond of the

boyfriend so we went to the airport

and got her a gift card for 20 glider

flights

he thought that if she was busy with a

new hobby it would give her less time to

spend with the boyfriend

and it worked margaret retired from

delta airlines last year

so guys dads brothers uncles

what you say and do with our daughters

will matter so much to what they become

give that nudge towards the flight line

and the flight deck

let them know you have an unwavering

belief

in their abilities because apparently

you are

very influential in shaping futures

when faced with fear self-doubt or

discrimination

these lady aviators kept taking off but

they didn’t do it alone

they had communities support systems and

mentors

to encourage and cheer them on

being a pilot takes a lot of hard work

and tenacity

but as amelia earhart once said everyone

has oceans to fly

if they have the heart to do it is it

reckless

maybe but what do dreams know of

boundaries

so how do we get our daughters to shoot

for the moon

well if you’re a pilot and someone asks

you what you do for a living

don’t just say you work out at the

airport stand up tall

and proudly say i’m a pilot

to increase the percentage from seven to

even 50 percent

requires us to start showing our

daughters these role models

but we need more role models in the

spotlight

and this happens in social media and in

the movies

we need a top gun sequel with female

pilots

and we need more children’s books with

girls flying airplanes

air shows are also a spectacular place

to show young girls a fascinating world

of aviation and we need more women in

the board rooms in the c-suite where

policies are being made

without better paid family leave

scheduled flexibility and other support

these women

who have a high amount invested in their

training

and careers are having to make the

difficult decisions

to stay home to become primary

caregivers our systems are broken

and companies are missing out on true

diversity and inclusivity with this

section

of employees

in 2009 i was flying a 25 million dollar

business jet

i just finished pre-flighting and i went

inside

to use a bathroom and wait on our

passenger on my way back outside there

were a group of

male pilots that i had to walk around

and i heard one of them say

since when did they start letting

females in the cockpit

i was shocked i didn’t know what to say

i didn’t say anything about two hours

later

halfway to chicago flying eight miles

above the earth

i finally thought of my reply since when

since 1909 actually

that’s when catherine first flew with

wilbur and i think she would have made

an excellent pilot

she had more confidence than her

brothers always encouraging them

to close the deal and to keep trying

after every

failed attempt she even learned french

when the trio traveled to europe to show

off their flying machine

she obviously didn’t let fear stand in

her way and she had brothers

who supported her

the pilots i interviewed have inspired

me to share their stories

they have worked hard and fought many

battles to earn their home in the skies

and i want our daughters to know that

they could be pilots

or anything else they dream of but it’s

more than just saying you could be

whatever you want to be

we need to teach them how to walk with

confidence how to face their fears

and have people around them who support

their dreams and say

yes

i don’t think my guidance counselor

laughed at me because he thought my

dreams were funny

he laughed because a young girl and a

town full of cowboys

and ranchers was in his office

dreaming of far away horizons

he laughed because he was shocked it

came out of my mouth

if your dreams don’t shock people

they’re

not big enough