Empowering women in aviation and aerospace

From research to reality

My journey began while working with scientists at the Met Office and researching women in senior management. Airbus heard about my work and invited me to present. They asked: would I do the same study with their engineers? That conversation opened my eyes to how deeply embedded these inequalities were in aviation.

My research consistently showed that women struggled to build networks and find mentors. I had a choice: continue producing papers, or build a practical solution based on that research.

"I spend a lot of my time researching gender inequality in what I call a hypermasculine industry – aviation, aerospace, and space. Only 5.5% of commercial airline pilots in the UK are women. In engineering generally, women make up about 18% across the UK, but within aviation and aerospace, it’s even lower. These aren’t just statistics – they represent real barriers that prevent talented women from progressing in their careers."

Professor Susan Durban

Professor Susan Durban

Building bridges across the industry

I spoke to Airbus, and together we approached the Royal Aeronautical Society. With ESRC funding, we spent six months conducting surveys, focus groups, and interviews to understand women’s career experiences and interest in a mentoring programme.

The response was a clear yes. But we didn’t want another corporate initiative. We built something different: a programme where competitor companies collaborate toward a shared goal. The result is ALTA – our mentoring platform supporting nearly 600 women across aviation, aerospace, and space. Based on relational mentoring, it fosters mutual learning rather than hierarchy, which is key to empowerment.

The platform uses an algorithm to match women based on questions we piloted over 18 months. Any woman in the industry can join at altamentoring.com for free. This was intentional – we wanted to include women in smaller firms whose employers might not support a women-only programme. So we asked the big corporates to help support the entire industry.

ALTA: Empowerment through connection

ALTA is built on the principle of relational mentoring, where mentor and mentee work together and learn from each other. It’s not a hierarchical relationship, which is crucial for empowerment.

The platform uses algorithms to match women based on carefully designed questions that we piloted for 18 months before launch. Any woman in the industry can join at altamentoring.com free of charge. This was deliberate – we knew there were lone women in small engineering companies whose employers might not sign up to a women-only programme. So we asked the big corporates to support women across the entire industry.

A collaborative revolution

What makes this really special is seeing competitors like Airbus, the Royal Air Force, the Royal Aeronautical Society, and Little Blue Private Jets Limited working together. Corporate sponsors make annual donations which doesn’t just support their own employees – it supports women throughout the industry.

This work earned us the ESRC Outstanding Impact in Business and Enterprise prize in 2020, along with prize money that we used to build our website. But the real impact goes beyond awards. The success of ALTA led to UKRI’s Future Flight Challenge programme approaching me to design another bespoke mentoring programme – Through this work, I’ve been made a fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society and now chair ALTA’s steering group while sitting on their Women in Aviation, Aerospace and Space Committee. It’s given me unprecedented access to an industry that desperately needs change.