On International Women's Day, Delta highlighted its progress in gender diversity. Over the last two years, the airline has worked to hire more women in a number of positions, including Senior Vice Presidents. Simple Flying takes a look.

Delta strives for gender diversity

Over the last two years, Delta announced that it had doubled the number of women Senior Vice Presidents. There are 25 women working for the carrier in officer positions. While increasing the number of women in officer positions is a good step forward, Delta is also recognizing other obstacles in the pipeline and working to remove those.

In addition to senior roles, 41% of Delta's employees are female; a fantastic number in a field that has historically been male-dominated.

Delta Gender Diversity
41% of Delta's employees are female. Photo: Delta Air Lines

Creating more opportunities

Delta's Chief People Officer, Joanne Smith, had the following to say on Delta's progress on creating opportunities:

Our efforts to seek diversity and promote inclusion are a marathon, not a sprint. We are extremely focused on the health of our pipeline, whether that’s through adopting more inclusive hiring practices to manage out unconscious bias or developing unique programs that introduce women to aviation earlier in life

With over 30-years of experience in the travel industry, Joanne Smith has received a multitude of awards and honors including being on Wall Street Journal's Top Women to Watch list among others.

 

Joanne Smith
Joanne Smith, Delta's Chief People Officer. Photo: Delta Air Lines

Recently, Delta has supported a number of different initiatives when it comes to bringing more women into the aviation world. This includes programs like the Propel Pilot Career Path Program which works to help participants who face barriers to becoming a pilot.

Delta Pilots
The Propel Pilot Career Path Program at Delta helps people who traditionally face barriers to becoming pilots. Photo: Delta Air Lines

In addition, Delta has also invested in close to 50 training programs for Aviation Maintenance Technicians. Moreover, Delta has also partnered with Girls Who Code and the Society of Women Engineers to build up Delta's workforce of women in STEM paths.

Working as a mother

Unfortunately, for a number of women around the world, becoming (or being) a mother has led to a fair bit of discrimination in hiring and work practices. But, Stephanie Asbury, Senior Vice President – Global Talent, instead found success at work as a mother:

I became a better leader when I became a mom. I learned how to better prioritize, organize and multitask. It taught me how to lift up and recognize what’s important. I learned to be more planned so I could always be present: when I’m at work I’m ‘all in’ in whatever I’m doing, and when I’m at home I’m ‘all in’ with my kids. The busier I got the better I got. It forced me to close out of my work before I left and do the same at home.

Stephanie Asbury
Stephanie Asbury found she became a better leader after becoming a mother. Photo: Delta Air Lines

Overall

While the aviation world as a whole has a lot of work to do to achieve true gender parity, Delta has made strides toward bringing more women into its workforce at all levels.

What do you make of Delta's advancements in gender diversity? Let us know in the comments!