Building a mentoring scheme to support professional women in aviation and aerospace

Durbin, Susan (2016). Building a mentoring scheme to support professional women in aviation and aerospace. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Archive. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-852214

This collaborative project aims to tackle an existing problem faced by female professionals in aviation and aerospace in the UK - a lack of suitable mentors to assist with career progression and provide general support and guidance. Academic research identifies role models and mentoring as having a positive impact upon career progression and a lack of mentors as a significant barrier to women's career progression. Research already conducted by the PI in one of the partner organisations identified a requirement for a formal mentoring scheme for female professionals that addressed their career progression needs and offers social support to what is a significantly under-represented group within the workforce. Through analysis of the requirements of female professionals in relation to a mentoring scheme, the PI and co-investigator (Co-I) will work collaboratively with key personnel at the Royal Aeronautical Society, Royal Air Force and Airbus Group, to build a robust mentoring scheme that will meet this critical need.

This project offers the potential to share academic research, knowledge and expertise on the careers of female professionals in aviation and aerospace and the factors that may lead to their under-representation in the sector as well as their propensity to either leave the profession or to not return post-childbirth. It also offers the potential for the female professionals themselves, senior managers and HR practitioners, to share knowledge and best practice to build upon what organisations are currently doing to attract and retain female engineers. The key working relationship will operate between the PI and at least two key senior personnel from each partner organisation, to bring together the academic expertise and practitioner experiences of staff at the University of the West of England (UWE) and the partner organisations to optimise the potential outcomes.

The project will be designed around a project group comprising academics from UWE (the PI, Co-I, Research Associate and Consultant) and professionals, human resource practitioners and senior managers at the partner organisations, to both share best practice and work collaboratively, to build a mentoring scheme specifically for female professionals. This group will meet for half a day on a monthly basis, to review the priorities of the partner organisations and discuss the progress of the project, where appropriate, as well as identify other key people to assist with the design and delivery of the project. Alongside this, the project group members will have the opportunity to network with senior key industry members and enjoy unprecedented access to information about other organisations' strategies for tackling the under-representation of women in aviation and aerospace, along with access to academic knowledge and research.

This project group will evolve as other aviation and aerospace companies within the industry are contacted and invited to become part of a wider mentoring scheme. Key stakeholders will also be drawn into the group, at different stages, to discuss the needs of their own female members.

The intended outcome of this project will be a robust and sustainable mentoring scheme for female professionals within the aviation and aerospace industry, which extends beyond the boundaries of the participants, to impact on the sector at the national level. The mentoring scheme will be run 'on-line', and hosted by the Royal Aeronautical Society in London. The on-line service will offer information about the scheme and training materials and potential mentors, each of whom will be fully profiled. The Royal Aeronautical Society will host two networking events per year, to bring mentors and mentees together, to review the scheme and put forward ideas for its development.

Data description (abstract)

The data sources are a combination of qualitative and quantitative data, from a survey, interviews and focus groups. Survey data was gathered from a sample of female members of the professional body representing the aviation and aerospace industry; interviews and focus groups with a sample of female professionals, employers and female representatives of other professional bodies within and outside the industry. The survey was utilised to determine the level and quality of mentoring that women were receiving (or providing as mentors) throughout the industry, career history and what respondents would look for from an industry-wide mentoring scheme, provided by women, for women. From an initial mail-out to 1700 women, 220 responses were received.

Interview data was gathered from a total of thirty female professionals and employers. The interviews focused upon women's under-representation in a male dominated industry, perceptions/experiences of being a female engineer, a brief career background, experiences and benefits gained from mentoring (if any), quality of mentoring received, reasons for not having a mentor and a 'wish list' for the proposed mentoring scheme. The 'wish list' included, what women would look for from the scheme, perceived strengths and weakness of an industry-wide mentoring scheme for women, awareness of and engagement in any current schemes in their own organisations, whether they would like to be involved in an industry-wide mentoring scheme for women and how they would perceive this to operate in practice (i.e. face to face, frequency of meetings, the matching process, etc.) Interviews with employers enabled a more general exploration of the industry and women's under-representation therein, the value of the proposed scheme, how this may or may not sit alongside their own organisations' mentoring schemes (if any) and to explore the key objectives for the scheme. Interviews with representatives of key professional bodies were helpful in relation to discussing current challenges facing women, any mentoring schemes they were aware of/involved in and suggestions for our own mentoring scheme.

Four focus groups were held to explore four key areas: the scheme objectives, best practice in the matching of mentors and mentees (i.e. key questions we should ask mentors and mentees in order to complete the matching process), practicalities, such as how the scheme should operate (i.e. should there be a set criteria and structure around how meetings should be conducted), how mentor/mentee meetings should be facilitated by alta, and on-going support for women who choose to participate in the scheme.

Data creators:

Creator Name	Affiliation	ORCID (as URL)
Durbin Susan	University of the West of England

Contributors:

Name	Affiliation	ORCID (as URL)
Lopes Ana	University of New Castle
Warren Stella	University of the West of England

Sponsors:

ESRC

Grant reference:

ES/M004775/1

Topic classification:

Transport and travel
Economics
Trade, industry and markets
Education
Labour and employment

Keywords:

mentoring, mentors, mentees, female professionals, employers, professional bodies, male dominated industry, Perceptions about female engineers, Experiences as female engineers, Under-represented women, career history, lack of mentors, lack of female mentors, mentoring functions, career mentoring, social support through mentoring, women mentoring women, mentor/mentee matching, mentoring scheme objectives

Project title:

Building a mentoring Scheme to Support Professional Women in Aviation and Aerospace

Grant holders:

Susan Durbin, Ana Lopes

Project dates: