Editor’s Note: This editorial is my own personal opinion based on 40 years covering the aviation industry. It is second in a series in response to the #WAI2025 session on what male allies can do to support women.
Part One — Opinion: Male Ally Discussion Very Disturbing with No Mention of Safety
Kathryn B. Creedy
There are two schools of thought when it comes to changing the aviation/aerospace culture. If we just get the story out there, things will change. There are thousands of stories including high-profile celebrities like Gretchen Carlson and the #MeToo Movement and little has changed.
The other school thinks if we get more women in executive management, things will change. We have thousands of women in the C-Suite and the culture has not changed. So, let’s look at what WAI does.
WAI has been in the forefront of quantifying the problem. It did a study years ago reporting that women were fascinated by aviation and aerospace and wanted to take on the challenges of our industry but were turned off by the male dominance. Given the nearly 5000 attendees and #WAI2025, all the women in space documentaries and the thousands of women executives in aviation, aerospace and defense, it is clear many have braved that dominance and pursued aviation and aerospace careers anyway…at a high cost for many.
The Women in Aviation Advisory Board released a report three years ago citing culture as the number one problem in recruiting and retaining women. The permanent Bessie Coleman Women in Advisory Committee was supposed to launch this year after the Federal Aviation Administration called for applications to serve on the board and find ways to put its many recommendations into practice. I applied despite my problem with the descriptions of its job which repeated the work already done by WIAAB. It said nothing nothing about implementing its recommendations.
Well, we all know what happened to that initiative on January 20 despite the fact it was mandated by Congress. But it reconfirms that Congress loves to order studies about major problems to make it look as if it is doing something when it really has no intention of doing so. It’s called kick the can down the road until the issue goes away. It is exactly how minorities are treated when they rock the boat – pat them on the head and tell them the big men will handle it.
The other treatment is bullying, threatening, demeaning and marginalization. Just look at what is happening to Sarah McBride, the nation’s highest ranking openly transgender elected official and the first openly transgender member of the United States Congres. Her “colleagues”, including women, can’t even behave with respect, discipline and professionalism and continue to misgender her and block her from the ladies room. It’s all petty and childish but that is what we are facing.
Sensitive Topic
I completely understand the treatment of women in the workforce is a touchy issue, and that WAI CEO Lynda Coffman and WAI must tread lightly given its sponsors are the aviation and aerospace industry corporates whose culture is the problem. But I’ve long thought that if WAI were to wield its power toward changing the culture it would be successful because it would scare them. My theory is, as Lynda said, they are trying to scare us, so let’s scare them.
I know there are board members and members who agree. But I also know it would be risky. I know members have dropped their membership because, as they have explained to me, it is too geared toward pilots but, more importantly they tell me, it is from frustration that WAI does nothing about the toxic culture.
Pilots
As far as too focused on pilots, I’ll tell you a little secret. Everything in aviation is focused on pilots who drink the kool aid they’re some kind of god. Well, if you know your Greek mythology, the gods were pretty damn egotistical and petty and liked to use humans for games. Sound familiar?
But WAI is fully aware of its soft spot so I don’t agree with the criticism. First of all, I’ve seen the move on the conference stage to include other careers and the WAI Career Guide for kids is the best in the biz. It’s Girls in Aviation Day is a model touching over 30,000 girls worldwide.
And it’s tough to change the culture, although if you want a blueprint on how, read Melinda Gates A Moment of Lift; How Empowering Women Changes the World which shows us even religiously or traditionally based intractable cultures can be changed with hard work…and courage.
WAI’s Role
It is clear WAI has rightly seen its role as helping women and minorities navigate the culture. At its conference, there are many panels addressing resilience against the adversity women face on the job. One of its greatest assets is Lane Wallace who writes for Aviation for Women about how to bridge the culture gaps in our industry and teach men what needs to happen to make the change. She often has popular workshops at WAI. The best nugget I’ve ever heard from her is what male allies can do. When someone makes a stupid comment about a woman (or a minority), colleagues can immediately respond with “Knock it off, you are hurting the team.” That’s a powerful message telling the perpetrator his views and comments are not only unacceptable but counterproductive.
Sexual Harassment: Where to Go and What to Do
Last year, to my surprise, there was an entire panel led by Kathleen Yodice, Esq and WAI board member. She was joined by Kandy Bernskoetter, a Fed Ex 767 captain, Embry Riddle Professor Michelle Halleran, director of diversity initiatives, and Captain Jenny Beatty, an American Airlines captain, who has been working this issue for decades and has some of the best assets to be used in the fight against discrimination, sexual harassment and assault. What astounded me was the panel was scheduled for late the last afternoon, but the huge room was full showing the interest was high and demand for action was there. And many women stayed behind to speak with Beatty.
The last time such a panel was scheduled was during the #Metoo Movement. Then there was a gap of several years and last year’s panel was at the insistence of a board member.
However sensitive this topic might be. It should be a standard part of WAI conference offerings and on its website. If you are going to teach women to be resilient, you must teach them what they need to know about the cultlure.
But there is one more thing we must think about if we are frustrated at WAI’s seeming inaction and our lack of power. I think it is doing what it can now but might do more, but it will need our help.
Every year, WAI has at least one panel telling women how to navigate the work/life balance of an aviation, pilot or aviation maintenance career. It is a must attend in my book and I continue to learn how both men and women take on the task of supporting both family and job.
My favorite story is a female captain whose husband, also a pilot, decided to take on home front responsibilities in favor of seeing her rise through the ranks. This is critically important. Many women pilots, in order to have a better schedule to accommodate work/life balance, opt for the seniority on a lesser paying aircraft which hurts women financially, throughout their career and into retirement.
Member Action
The bottom line, it is up to members to change the discussion. If we want WAI to go out on a limb, we must support its mission. That’s a big if, because I think, all things considered, they do a hell of a lot to help women in aviation and aerospace worldwide and we risk those initiatives if we take this mission on.
Call to Action
Are we willing to replace the money lost if a sponsor bails? Are we willing to shout that bailout from the rooftops, so they become known for their lack of support for women and minorities? All the companies talk a good game about supporting women but it is rare the words are followed by concrete actions.
#WAI2025 was not just a feel-good conference, energizing us to cope with the next year. It was a call to action and we must answer that call.
One of the problems is “someone else itis” in which we expect someone else to do the heavy lifting, especially the government. That does not work. It’s up to us. However, in the words of both Coffman and Emily Calandrelli at the opening session of #WAI2025, no one is going to fight for us. We must make it happen ourselves.
To change the culture, we must take Lynda’s message about being bold back to our companies and insist on change knowing full well the reaction of the company and HR will be when someone rocks the boat – particularly this boat. We’ll be facing retaliation at the least and firing at the most. But if we get those stories out there, companies might be shamed into changing the culture. I’ll get the story out there and I’m good at it.
What We Can Do
A less confrontational approach would take the Women in Aviation Advisory Board report and carve out doable initiatives and make sure as many recommendations as possible get done. Do we really need government to guide us? Hell no. Do we want this government to guide us, especially now? Oh, double hell no!
As I said in my analysis of WIAAB report, I’ve been around too long and seen too many reports shelved to know if we want change, we must do it ourselves. It’s been three years and even the democrats gave it a low priority calling for applications at the last minute of the administration. Now, I don’t trust this administration to do what we need.
To hell with government, to hell with corporations who are now rolling back DEI and shooting themselves in the foot. If we would take the recommendations and make them happen, we would be taking the first step on a long road but at least the change would be launched. Why are we waiting?
Another great tool is the training program developed by Dr. Kimberly Perkins to address the negative culture problem. She targets pilots for now but wants to see it adopted for everyone. By tackling bias through her multifaceted strategy, she believes we can boost overall safety, foster more effective communication, mutual respect, and psychological safety as essential elements of a high-performing flight crew.
Conclusion
Disturbingly, I watched the standing ovation after the male ally session on which I wrote my Part One critique of ALPA. I know nothing about the other two speakers during the male ally discussion, I assume they meant what they said and are genuinely interested in improving the lot of women and minorities in aviation and aerospace. I also know too many male allies/champions who are very vocal about supporting us when push comes to shove to doubt their sincerity.
But I do know ALPA. It is not among those genuinely trying to help women and minorities. Would there be an OBAP if ALPA delivered that role? Ditto for all the other minority pilot organizations. ALPA is a political animal blowing with the wind playing politics with safety… again, especially these days, which made ALPA President Jason Ambrosi’s comments during the session that much more disgusting.
This culture is not unique to aviation. It is SOP across Corporate America and HR quickly becomes the enemy protecting the corporation despite corporate policies and laws against sexual harassment, assault and discrimination.
At next year’s conference WAI should invite Greg Principato and Tony Kern to the panel, two of the most vocal allies in the industry. The question should not be about what male allies can do to help women but shining a light on why the culture is this way. Hold them up as role models by asking what specific actions or policy changes have they made to ensure a cultural change? What have they done to get other males on board? What are the metrics of those changes? What are their recommendations for working with men to change the culture? Because we are not going to do it with ALPA.
Frankly, I don’t think men know how they can help. When I asked SoFly, the Miami WAI Chapter what it meant by the male ally it introduced last year, the gentelmen said he was just there to literally do the heavy lifting. That’s wonderful…but that’s not all we need so we must define a male ally by describing the actions we expect to see.
Rites of passage and modern masculinity
Woman are being asked to solve a problem they did not create. So, we need to partner with men to eliminate hierarchical thinking, as Melinda Gates says, and that is now what WAI is doing by working with all the other aviation minority groups to develop a strategy to fight back.
One of my pet peeves about advocacy groups is silos which are counterproductive. Silos are designed to protect revenues and these organizations, whether they fight for civil liberties or minorities in aviation, should be joining together. That’s why the move to work with OBAP, Sisters of the Skies, National Gay Pilots Association, Professional Asian Pilots Association, the 99s, Professional Women Controllers, Women at NASA, Women in the Military and others is such a game changer. But ALPA was in the list Lynda mentioned and it will try to control the conversation. We cannot be led by ALPA. We must lead ALPA. Read Part One to see how they manipulate the system.
But don’t forget the other aviation organizations including International Aerospace Womens Association, Female Aviators Sticking Together, Association of Women in Aviation Maintenance, Women in Corporate Aviation, Women in Drones, Whirly Girls, Black Women in Aviation or the Black Aviators Network.
Be Bold! Take Collective Action
Lynda called on us to be bold and join in collective action against the tide rushing over Washington. We need all those groups and their members to be included if we want to effect change in diversity, equity and inclusion.
The culture has always been with us but, as Lynda pointed out, adversity breeds opportunities. Working collectively and being bold could make the difference, especially in changing culture.
Actions speak louder than words. It is not only the actions of males in play here. It is the collective action minorities take against what is happening. That means us.
If we want WAI to fight the fight, we must fight with it.
futureaviationaerospaceworkforce.com 