If you’ve ever come through Jeff Air Pilot Services, you’re likely to have realized this place wouldn’t be up and running without some hardworking women keeping us — pun intended — soaring.
Operations manager Gretchen Jeffries and assistant operations manager Emily Clark run the show at our Greenwood, IN location.
These women are instrumental to our success at Jeff Air. Unfortunately for our industry at large, however, women have long faced an uphill climb within the world of aviation.
While women played notable roles throughout the early years of the air and space industry’s history, for the most part they were actively excluded from what became a boy’s club. Even when anti-discrimination laws stopped such practices in the mid-1960s, virtually little to no effort was ever made to bring women into the fold and aviation continued to lag behind other previously male-dominated industries when it came to gender equality and inclusion.
According to the FAA’s most recent statistics, and despite increases and advancements each of the past five decades, women account for just 6.32% of commercial pilots and 6.08% of non-commercial pilots in America today. Things may be trending ever so slightly upward, however, with women making up 12.49% of all student pilots.
At Jeff Air we believe the skies are for everyone and organizations around the world agree. Women of Aviation Worldwide Week was March 2-8. The celebration coincides with the anniversary of the world’s first female pilot license, issued to Raymonde de Laroche March 8, 1910, in Paris.
The week’s ongoing mission is to celebrate the industry’s progresses, its female pioneers and today’s women of aviation while introducing girls of all ages to exclusive opportunities to explore the skies. Through nine previous years of Women of Aviation Worldwide Weeks, 314,000 women and girls from 47 countries across five continents have participated.
From a recreational flight that checks off a bucket-list item to the beginning of a long, storied career in aviation, Jeff Air wants to share the skies with all who dream of flying. Reach out today and let’s broaden your horizons with a change of scenery among the clouds.