Hello, my name is Funke Adeyemi and I recently joined the Medium family. Women’s empowerment is a hot topic all over the world. I’ve recently been to a number of women’s events, the Handmaidens’ Women in Leadership Series in June 2018 and more recently, the Global Aviation Gender Summit in August 2018.
A lot of key messages came out from both events and here are some of my thoughts on the dialogue:
I believe in women, in women as leaders and in the fact that we have so much to offer. The aviation industry where I work has traditionally been a male dominated industry with the majority of women who work in the sector working as cabin crew or in ground services.
There are very few women in top or senior leadership positions within the sector. Women account for less than 5% of airline CEOs in the world! Some of the top 10 highest paying jobs are also in aviation — pilots and flight engineers, but women only represent about 7% of this group globally. Interestingly, women now account for about 50% of global business travel. This phenomenon is not limited to aviation; it cuts across most governments and the private sector.
This raises the issue of gender imbalance but this isn’t my focus. I’m interested in ensuring that through the combination of the 3 Cs — Confidence, Competence and Capital, women all over the world and in every sector, enterprise or field of endeavour, achieve their dreams and reach the highest heights in the corporate and business environments.
Confidence is about self-belief, professionalism and positive comportment; Competence is about hard work, credibility and integrity; and finally, Capital doesn’t have to be just about money or funds, but should equally be about developing your personal brand, creating a niche and self-development.
The organisation where I work has been proactive about this issue, realizing that there was a need to encourage our female workforce to become their best selves and to reach for greater heights. This involved a combination of building confidence through what we call Gravitas Training, mentoring through our “Big Sister, Little Sister” programme (my little sister is great by the way) and inviting successful women and men from across the region to share their life, work or business experiences to motivate our workforce at various forums and events we organize.
I also believe that both men and women have a role to play in not just mentoring but sponsoring talented individuals and helping them achieve their goals. There is a lot of mentoring going on but sponsoring is especially important though not quite as prominent. Sponsoring involves someone taking you under their wing and providing you with opportunities that you might not have had otherwise or simply taking a chance on you.
This is actually one of the key contributory factors in the lives of many successful people and should be strongly encouraged.
One last thing — I’m now focusing on a new area which is to promote aviation as a career choice for women and young people. Having a career in aviation is not only about becoming a pilot or cabin crew member, as awesome as these jobs are. There are so many other roles to consider that need skilled personnel to sustain them.
These include general managers, air traffic controllers, environmentalists, engineers, technicians, information technology specialists, aircraft manufacturers, mechanics, designers, airport planning development specialists…and the list goes on. We expect the industry to continue grow and that growth can only be supported by a skilled workforce in all these areas. Aviation can form a new career path for thousands and millions of people, especially in today’s world where many new career avenues are opening up daily and are being actively embraced in society.
Dear woman, you can do it! Focus on the 3 Cs — Confidence, Competence and Capital. Don’t be daunted by anything. Believe you are already a leader while recognizing the value in collaboration and team work. Identify your mentors and sponsors and grow with them. Have the right attitude, remain personable and you will go far. Nothing is impossible. Impossible is nothing!
I celebrate the millions of working women out there. Women who work either as home-makers, entrepreneurs or employees, to achieve their dreams and to help support their families, friends and communities. We all contribute so much to the world in our own way.
By Adefunke Adeyemi
Source: medium.com
