Deputy opposition leader Sussan Ley gets re-licenced to help close gender gap in commercial flying industry

For the first time in seven years, deputy opposition leader Sussan Ley is back in the pilot’s seat.

No, she’s not running the Liberal Party (and says she’s happy with the role she has), but she is once again in the skies and is trying to encourage more women to follow their passions.

It would just be a bonus if some wound up in the cockpit, where there is a gaping gender gap.

Ms Ley, the member for the southwestern NSW seat of Farrer since 2001, first attained her commercial pilot licence at the age of 19 after working three jobs to pay for lessons.

She failed to get a job at the major airlines because she was a woman, instead biding her time working at an air-traffic control centre until she made the move to south-west Queensland in her early 20s to work as an aerial stock musterer.

Her love of the skies never went away, even as she studied to become an accountant, as she became a mother, and as she made the move to politics.

She said she “never stopped thinking about flying” in the years since she last held a licence, and in July opted to take a week to get it back.

Ley, who described the experience as “intense and challenging, but incredibly rewarding”, said she was partly inspired to get her licence back to set an example for other women who had perhaps let their own dreams lapse, or take a backseat.

I think there are young women who are choosing other things and haven’t considered what aviation might be able to bring them. This is a fantastic career for so many reasons.

“You should never, no matter how demanding your life is, give up on your dreams, because your dreams will never give up on you,” she told The Nightly.

“I think it’s really valuable for you to hang onto the thing that … makes your heart sing. I often talk to young people who are quite weighed down by their responsibilities, and I always say to them … what is the thing that you really love?

“It could be going to live music, it could be riding horses, it could be writing bad poetry, it could be anything, but you have to give yourself time for that. For women especially, who give so much of themselves … hang on to the thing that is your dream.”

The added bonus, she says, of being a politician with a pilot’s licence is that she can get out into the more remote areas of her vast electorate.

“This will give me opportunities to fly to parts of my electorate that I wouldn’t normally visit, but I’ve always considered it very important ... I’m always wanting to visit them more,” she said.

The number of women learning to fly commercial planes is plummeting, and women only make up about seven per cent of aircraft operators. The ones who are there face up to a 55 per cent gender pay gap - which the airlines attribute to low numbers.

Ms Ley said there needed to be a concerted effort to encourage more women to enter the industry.

According to Coalition analysis, the number of female traineeships has also dropped - from 16 per cent in 2020 to eight per cent in 2023.

“It’s interesting, because if you talk to girls in year six and seven and you say ‘who wants to be a pilot’, so many of them will put their hand up. But by the time they get to year nine, very few hands are going up,” she said.

She launched her pilot parity audit earlier this year, demanding updates from all major airlines on their gender equality targets and progress on programs to boost women’s participation.

“I’m not checking items off a checklist here, I just want to know what we can all be doing to encourage more women into aviation,” she said.

As part of that, she has met with numerous training organisations, and has sought a briefing from Transport Minister Catherine King about the government’s efforts to boost the number of female pilots.

The Women in Aviation Industry Initiative, first introduced by the Coalition Government in 2019, has continued under Labor to fund a range of activities to increase visibility and awareness of the sector among young girls and women.

The Government hopes that in doing so, it will increase awareness of the “breadth of careers available” to women and girls, and will change the industry’s culture to ensure it’s more inclusive.

Ms Ley said there were active efforts to remove barriers to get women into flying.

“Flying is expensive … there are pathways like VET and scholarships which are being offered a lot now. I don’t think there’s a barrier to commencing flying,” she said.

“I think there are young women who are choosing other things and haven’t considered what aviation might be able to bring them. And I want more to look at what it could bring you. This is a fantastic career for so many reasons.”