Gatwick hosts gender diversity in aviation conference

London Gatwick is partnering with Women in Aviation and Aerospace Charter (WiAAC) for an event to share best practice and work towards gender balance in aviation. The conference is being held at Gatwick today (March 5) to help industry-wide efforts at making aviation more gender balanced to coincide with International Women’s Day this Sunday, 8 March.

Eleven leading aviation experts from Gatwick, Virgin, Airbus and the Royal Aeronautical Society will give talks at the event, which has seen Gatwick partnering with Women in Aviation and Aerospace Charter (WiAAC) – an organisation designed to collectively build more gender balanced aviation and aerospace sectors.

Round table discussions will also help participants to share best practices and also to encourage more organisations to sign the Aerospace Charter, which sets out a range of commitments to work together to build a more balanced and fair industry for women. So far, the charter has nearly 200 signatories since being launched in 2018.

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 the opportunities available and also partners with an all-girls school in Horsham to encourage more females to consider STEM-related careers.

Bronwen Jones, development director at Gatwick Airport, said: “Greater gender diversity in aviation is so important and we are delighted that so many well qualified delegates are coming 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.”