Why Does Half The World's Population Only Comprise 4%-6% Of The Aviation/Aerospace World?

Comments/News/Commentary by ANN CEO/Editor-In-Chief, Jim Campbell

As you may have noticed, the ANN crew has had their 'thinking caps' on, 24/7. The result is a lot of good ideas... and the courage to pursue them. And that's been our hallmark for nearly 23 years... when we created the FIRST 24/7/365 online news network, and a whole host of additional capabilities, some 360,000+ stories ago. 

Over time; we recognized that we had to try a lot of new concepts to find the few that would truly rocket themselves to the top of our priority list, and we've learned to develop a solid sense as to what has the most serious potential -- and we have one of those now -- one that truly excites us as to the profound effect it might/must have. 

We have plans to add no less than 6 new weekly shows to our Airborne news program roster in the next year or two... each covering important, even pivotal, topics of interest to a vast number of aviators and aviation professionals. We've created nearly 2000 Airborne news programs in the last decade, and we feel we have some solid intuition on what we need to do to support critical topics/aspects of the aviation biz. 

One project now stands tall at the top of our "Must-Do" list... a new weekly program in the Airborne series, called 'Aviatrix' -- already endorsed and guided by some of the most active and inspiring women in all of aviation. 

You don't have to have 20/20 vision to look at a major aviation event like Oshkosh and see one over-riding fact... we're not nearly as diverse as we could be... and need to be. Indeed, Oshkosh may be one of the most exciting events on the face of the planet, but it also looks like one of the world's greatest gatherings of older white guys (and yeah, that includes yours truly). While the world population around us is split pretty evenly between male and female genders, it's a shocking statistic to realize that women in aviation and aerospace still comprise only about 4%-6% of the total... leaving one to imagine the stunning impact that might take place if just a small additional percentage of the female side of the world became part of ours.

That, folks, is more than a game-changer... it's positively disruptive.... in all the right ways. 

Here's the upside... much of aviation IS working hard to bridge the gap... efforts like the historic 99s, Women in Aviation, Whirly Girls, Women and Drones, the Association for Women in Aviation Maintenance... and SO many more are, within their respective communities, doing GREAT work to change aviation's diversity-impaired dynamic. It's a great start... 

So... I have a proposition for all of you...

Help me do something about this.

The organizations I mentioned, and other parts of the community, ARE doing great work... but all that work needs to be seen A LOT MORE -- both inside and out of aviation -- and that's where we come in.

We've been producing news-products for over 20 years. We've also built distribution systems that aggressively pursued eyeballs all over the world... millions upon millions of them... and we've done it without fail (video-wise) for over a decade and a lot longer in other media.

It is the Airborne news team's intention to produce innovative and compelling programming dedicated to the role of women in aviation and aerospace programming that features solid and uplifting news of the many ways that women contribute to aviation and aerospace, while also tackling the weighty issues many face in pioneering their way through these industries. These programs will not only call attention to news devoted to the Aviatrix population, but can serve as an over-riding force that recognizes, promotes, and highlights the programs, people, and organizations that are trying to change the face of aviation -- for the betterment of us all. These org's are awfully good at preaching to their own choirs... we simply want to make sure that everyone else gets a chance to see who they are, what they stand for, and then provide solid news about the work the Aviatrix community does--every day.

Airborne-Aviatrix (AAx, for short) will start as a weekly web news program produced under and using the resources of the Airborne programming system and will consist of carefully selected news stories and features about the important and under-reported role many of today's women are playing in the Aero-Verse. The topic is so compelling that the potential for greater than weekly frequencies, as well as longer formats, are both significant - and anticipated.

So... help us. We need to build better awareness of the role women are undertaking in our industry, we need to build a sponsorship base to fund the program (already seeing great progress), we need the support of the rank and file of aviation, as well as the decision-makers, in order to make sure that Aviatrix programs get every chance to do a good and thorough job, and we need your ideas for stories, features, and programming suggestions that can help build the Aviatrix program concept into a juggernaut that will allow this industry to take a few more positive steps forward -- welcoming more women into our ranks, thereby building a better aviation community for all. 

FMI: Call 863-299-8680, or email jim@aero-news.net