According to "Women in Aviation," only 8.4% of all pilots are women (https://www.wai.org/resources/waistats)
Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/dS6OTHye8Pw
I never thought about this before taking my children to a Young Eagles event where trained and experienced pilots take children 8-18 up in a private airplane, most often for the child's first time. There were a couple female pilots and I have several daughters. They each got to fly with the private pilots and had a wonderful time.
As I contemplate what my girls will be when they "grow up," I want them to have success. I believe there is a lot of potential in the skies. In May 2020, the average salary for a commercial pilot was $93,300 (Source)
If you fly for a major airline, it can balloon up (see what I did there 😉) to hundreds of thousands per year. As an example, some major airlines pay up to and sometimes beyond $400/hour. I recently heard from some people I'm close to that one of the major airliners was paying triple time because they couldn't get enough pilots. Can you imagine a 4-hour flight making $4800? That's a good day!!!
A full-time job requires 2,080 hours of work per year. At $250/hour (a nice average major airline pilot wage), that's $520,000 in a year. Now you're talking doctor and lawyer money.
I have driven for Uber and Lyft when times were tough. I averaged about $18-$20/hour when you discounted the cost of gas at the time. I would gladly 'Uber Fly' people around for 10x that per hour.
So why are there so few gals in the sky? I think it is simply that they aren't aware that it is a job that's available. Tell someone you know. Spread the word!
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