AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - April 2019 - 84

ABINGDON MULLIN

PEGGY CHABRIAN

groups that advocate for a greater representation of women throughout the industry,
especially in professional settings. Chabrian
said the fact that women have gone from
around 1.9 percent of ATPs in 1990 to more
than 4 percent is proof that the trend is at
least headed in the right direction.
Yet the gender barrier was broken at
a U.S. airline in 1973 when Emily Howell
Warner was hired at Frontier Airlines.
That means it's taken 46 years to get to
a point where there are still fewer than
7,000 active female ATPs. Other statistics
are even more troubling. The United States
lags the world in female airline pilots as a
percentage. Worldwide, women make up
more than 5 percent of all airline pilots, and
an Indian airline fills the cockpit with more
than 13 percent women. Hawaiian Airlines
leads airlines in the United States at just
less than 10 percent. All this is according to
data released by the International Society
of Women Airline Pilots.
Similarly, in recent years, women
made major gains in the labor market; the
female pilot population remained virtually unchanged. It may be easy to say that
these things take time, there are big cultural shifts that need to occur, and things
will improve. Yet other industries saw
massive increases in female employment.
In the past 15 years, at least 20 industries
have seen the percentage of women in the
workforce increase by more than 6 percent,
including careers as diverse as pharmacists,
writers, bakers, public relations executives,
and veterinarians. Veterinarians went from
34 percent female in 2000 to 59 percent
female in 2016. The parallels are strong:
Being a vet takes significant schooling and
training, is a major investment, and has a
long payoff.
In fact, even in many careers most
would consider male dominated, women
make up a larger percentage of the workforce than they do in professional piloting.
Nearly 7 percent of truck drivers are
women, 12.5 percent of police officers, 30
percent of farmers, and 9 percent of the
construction industry.

OPPOSITE: JOHN UELAND

84 | AOPA PILOT April 2019

WHEN ABINGDON MULLIN was starting
the Abingdon Watch Company, she met a
man who said he would be happy to help
fund her ambitious venture. But there was
a catch. Mullin had to "make him feel like
a kid again" while his wife wasn't at home.
At the time of the harassment, Mullin
was a customer service representative
at a prominent flight school at the Santa
Monica airport and had just finished her
private pilot certificate. The man who
propositioned Mullin was a regular customer at the business, which also had an
FBO. To help her feel safe at work after
rejecting the advance, Mullin's boss helped
hide her every time the man came in. She
said the corporate office didn't seem concerned since the incident took place off the
property.
Since then Mullin has gone on to a
successful career ferrying airplanes and
as an airline pilot, along with running
the Abingdon Watch Company. However,
she has been told her success is because
she slept her way to jobs and other
opportunities.
Mullin's story isn't unique. Women
involved in aviation have countless stories
of facing some form of harassment or discrimination during their training, at the
airport, or as part of their career. Yet the
women interviewed for this story said that
although harassment can be part of the job,
they don't dwell on it.
Female pilots make up about 7 percent of all certificated pilots. Just 10 years
ago the number was closer to 6.2 percent. Professional pilot ranks are even
less diverse, with women holding 4.3 percent of airline transport pilot certificates.
Depending on how you look at it, these
numbers are either a stark improvement
after years of stagnation, or a dismal record
that is being outstripped by dozens of industries that are historically male dominated.
Peggy Chabrian thinks we should be
looking at the positives, including an increase
in the number of female pilots. Chabrian is
the president and founder of Women in
Aviation International (WAI), one of a few
AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - April 2019

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