2017 WAI Conference /99s Booth
Wow! What a spectacular conference! Within a year there seems to be substantial progress toward improving working conditions for moms within the aviation industry. There are ladies taking up the reigns to ensure that future moms will not have to go through the painful and sometimes awkward meetings with employers to determine maternity leave, if any, and once returning to work how to negotiate the struggle of pumping while on the job.
I attended the Flying Moms: Managing Motherhood Panel, "Moms from various flying and family backgrounds discuss how they manage motherhood and their flying jobs. You will hear from a panel of married and single moms who fly airline, military and helicopter jobs while raising a family. Bring your questions and a pen as we reveal our resources for making our jobs easier."
I walked away with not only a list of new-to-me advice but hope for sweeping changes within the year. And for the first time ever, during a mom pilot panel at WAI, there were men present which was outstanding in my eyes. (Thank you to those that attended!!) Hopefully, with possible changes for maternity leave there will be changes to paternity, or more appropriately, parental leave policies.
I met a number of ladies who are excited about the progress of our grass roots effort with Mommy Pilots of the 99s. Not only did they express interest but were working to connect me with other women working to help moms within the different tiers of the pilot community. The best part is that these ladies are now back out, traveling the world, and spreading the word and working to bring us all together to accomplish this common goal to support women and mom pilots.
So where are we at with Mommy Pilots of the 99s? Currently, we offer the following:
* Mommy Pilots Scholarship (Must be a 99 and mom of a child under the age of 18)
* Mommy Pilots Blog (Need inspiration? Read our blog!)
* Mommy Pilots Website (Includes resources for flying, other scholarships, etc)
* Mommy Pilot Guides (Informal Mentorship)
* Working to ensure babysitting and/or family friendly activities are available at meetings and conferences (We worked with the committee for the 2017 99s International Conference to help with kid friendly ideas. Hopefully, we'll see you there! Bring your kids!)
* Education-- "Flying with Kids" Seminar which we have presented at the section level, a 99s webinar, and this year at the 99s International Conference in July.
What's new?
* Chartering a Virtual Mommy Pilots Chapter of the 99s (If you are interested please email us at mommypilots@gmail.com. We are looking for officers as well. If you are a member of a current 99s chapter, you can keep your membership there and still participate with the virtual Mommy Pilots chapter!)
* Expanding our support and outreach through resources and connections made at WAI which will expand our current focus of part 91 (General Aviation) to corporate, military, and airlines.
This is the time to get involved in the 99s and Mommy Pilots of the 99s. If you are passionate about making changes for mom pilots, supporting other women in the industry, and inspiring women and future generations to choose careers within aviation and aerospace, please, join us! We must make sure everyone knows there is support for mom pilots, even if you are not a mom pilot. At some point a woman will face the decision to become a mother or not. Young women need to know that they can still choose a career in aviation and at some point have a family if they choose. Mommy Pilots of the 99s and other such programs are vitally important to this industry if we don't want to keep seeing the numbers of women pilots rapidly decline. We need to support women at all phases of life and all the decisions that come with it. If you are not a mom, but are a 99 we need your help too! It's time to come together as a community. A community of women pilots with all backgrounds can make a much grander impact than just a handful of women.
We are women. We fly. Women are also moms. Moms fly too. Join the 99s today! We need you!
Liz Poeppelman, Chairwoman
Mommy Pilots of The Ninety-Nines
Who are The Ninety-Nines? We are an organization of all women pilots: student to airline/military pilots. To learn more please visit www.ninety-nines.org.
Join the 99s! Click here to join.
