Despite high-profile campaigns to attract more women into the aviation and aerospace sector, females remain heavily under-represented in core science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) roles, whether as aeronautical engineers, technicians, or commercial pilots. Women currently make up less than 22% of professionals in these technical disciplines, and are disproportionately clustered in customer service, administration, and cabin crew roles, which carry lower average salary bands.
There is an even wider disparity in flight decks; female commercial pilots account for just 5.8% of the UK total. Long-haul pilot positions, which offer some of the highest salaries in the industry, require extensive flight hours and overnight roster commitments that have historically seen low rates of female applicants. Only 7% of applicants to national airline pilot cadetships are female, with an attrition rate of nearly 40% during the initial theoretical training stage.
Furthermore, executive boards and senior operational management within aerospace firms remain male-dominated. The trend toward part-time working arrangements, often chosen to balance family commitments, is far more prevalent among female ground staff and cabin crew. Consequently, the average gender pay gap across the UK aviation and aerospace sector stands at 22%.
While women have made significant advancements in the broader UK labour market since the late 20th century—reflecting rising economic participation rates and educational attainment—hourly pay disparities in highly specialized engineering and transport fields have proved stubborn, stalling significantly over the last fifteen years.
Using the information in Extract C and your economic knowledge, answer the following question:
Evaluate the microeconomic and macroeconomic factors that explain gender-based wage differences in the UK aviation and aerospace industry.
