Advocate Like a Captain
If you’re a woman chasing leadership in aviation or aerospace, here’s the cold, hard truth: you’ll need to advocate for yourself loudly, early, and unapologetically.
Start here:
Say what you want. Don’t hint - declare.
Track everything. Your hours, your wins, your rescues, your strategic saves. Keep the logbook tight.
Build alliances. Find mentors and allies - but also be one.
Leave if you must. Loyalty is great. Growth is better.
Remember your worth. Even when someone tries to discount it based on their own discomfort.
WAI and IAWA: The Global Tower Talking Back
This is why organisations like the Women in Aviation International and International Aviation Women’s Association matter when it becomes more than networking. Organisations such as these become global vectors for change. WAI and IAWA aren’t just networking in heels, they are global forces advocating for women’s advancement across every stratum of aviation and aerospace. WAI and IAWA give women the mic, the mentorship, the room, and the runway to lead. They connect women across all sectors of aviation and aerospace, amplifies our stories, pushes our agendas into boardrooms, and reminds us: You’re not alone. You are part of a global flight crew on a mission. We’re writing the next chapter. Together.
Influential Women Steering Aviation & Aerospace
One of the most powerful lessons I’ve learned in aviation is this: you don’t need to see someone who looks like you in the cockpit-or the boardroom-to believe it’s possible. But when you do? It hits different. It hits deep. Because these women don’t just lead from the front - they’ve flown the long way up and are now changing what leadership in this industry looks like.
Let me introduce you to five fearless flyers who are not only charting the course but redesigning themap:
Samantha Willenbacher, SVP of Key Accounts at Bristow Group, brings it home for those of us in rotary-wing and offshore operations. She’s built a career managing high-stakes global energy partnerships and SAR contracts, but she also shaped generations of pilots as the former Director of Bristow Academy, where she trained more than 2,000 aviators. Her influence lives in every take-off that begins with solid training and fearless leadership.
Yvonne Makolo is the trailblazing CEO of RwandAir and the first woman to chair the IATA Board of Governors. She’s not just building an airline - she’s redefining what African aviation can become on the global stage, all while navigating headwinds with unapologetic authority and vision. She's proof that quiet storms don’t make legends -bold ones do.
Sabine Klauke, Chief Technical Officer at Airbus, is leading the aerospace giant into the future with a steady hand on innovation, hydrogen propulsion, and sustainability. She's an engineering force with a seat at one of the most powerful tables in aerospace and she’s using it to rewrite what’s possible at 30,000 feet.
Gwynne Shotwell serves as President and COO of SpaceX -yes, that SpaceX. She helped take a pipe dream and turn it into reusable rockets and Mars missions. While others were waiting for approval, she was negotiating launch pads and scaling space operations like she was playing chess in zero gravity.
Stephanie Chung, now Chief Growth Officer at Wheels Up, shattered ceilings when she became the first African American president of a major U.S. private aviation company. But she didn’t stop at the corner office -she’s built her legacy by opening doors for others, pushing the industry to expand not just who flies, but who leads.
These women didn’t ask for permission. They didn’t whisper in rooms that weren’t made for them. They didn’t wait for clearance - they took off.
Final Descent: Your Turn in the Captain’s Seat
I have been underestimated, passed over, dismissed, and insulted. But I’ve also commanded missions, built teams, made history and now I work with an exceptional Team to oversee flight safety and regulations for an entire country. I’ve had a career full of turbulence, tailwinds, and unexpected landings.
And through it all, I’ve learned this:
You do not need permission to lead. You just need resilience, receipts, and the readiness to walk away from any cockpit - or company - that doesn’t see your value.
To the girls with engine grease on their hands, to the students getting side-eyes in flight school, to the ones sketching rotor blades in the margins of their notebooks - you belong here. To the girls building rocket ships out of cereal boxes, to the young women wondering if there’s space for them in hangars, helidecks, or mission control: there is.
And remember this: you don’t need to act like a man to lead like a pro. Your voice matters. Your instincts matter. And your presence in the cockpit is part of someone else’s permission to dream. Be bold. Be kind. Be brilliantly competent and never forget that leadership isn’t about being loudest in the room.
Aviation won’t always welcome you with open arms. You might walk into hangars where no one looks like you. You’ll be underestimated, interrupted, and occasionally mistaken for the snack cart.
Show up, speak up, do the work, and fly the damn aircraft.
And here’s the life lesson: In male-dominated spaces, don’t try to out-man the men. Out-lead them. Out-perform them. Outlast the doubt. And bring all of yourself while you do it. You don’t have to change to fit the cockpit. The cockpit needs to adjust to fit the future -and that future includes you.
Go anyway.
Show up anyway.
Fly it anyway.
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