Women Soar Society launches

During the EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2019, the EAA Aviation Foundation announced the formation of the Women Soar Society.

“This is a growing group of women who are supporting other women in aviation to help them accomplish their goals and soar beyond their dreams,” foundation officials said. 

The EAA Women Soar Society brings together a “carefully crafted” group of women from a variety of backgrounds and different areas of aviation. According to officials, the society’s advisory board will focus on reaching more women at all stages of their aviation journey. 

The chair of the advisory board, Heather Penney, is also an EAA board member and a senior fellow at the Mitchell Institute.

“They are all leaders in their own right in aviation, incredible role models — not just for women, but for aviators and enthusiasts of all kinds — and to be able to bring together such an amazing group of talent to focus on women’s programming is a real privilege,” Penney told EAA officials.

Women make up only 6% of pilots. That number is lower in the military and even lower in fighter aviation, according to Penney.

“From my own background as a female fighter pilot, we represent approximately 2% of all fighter pilots and less than 0.5% of pilots in general within the Air Force,” she said. “We know that the demand for aviation professionals is only going to grow in the future, and bringing women into that talent pool is going to be essential if we are going to meet that demand.”

She added that the society aims to support women of all ages and areas of aviation interest.

“The overall vision and the goal for the Women Soar Society is to grow the participation of women in aviation careers and areas of passion,” she said. “We will be successful if the involvement of women in the general aviation community grows; it doesn’t necessarily have to be a professional occupation.”