Work life balance of female pilots with children in Finland

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the position of Finnish women in aviation and find out how to make the industry more attractive to them in terms of both work and family life. The aviation sector continues to exhibit an absence of equilibrium in gender representation, indicating a persistent lack of gender diversity. The proportion of female pilots among all pilots is less than six percent worldwide (2021). In Finland, we still remain considerably beneath this number. The commissioner of the thesis is The Ninety Nines Finnish Section. The Ninety Nines Finnish Section is a subdivision of the international organization The Ninety Nines. The Ninety-Nines Finnish Section has seventy-seven members in 2024. Both written and electronic literature, articles and research were used for the theoretical framework. Similar studies from other countries, albeit on a slightly different topic, were used to compare the results. For this study, four semi-structured interviews were conducted, in which female pilots working in two Finnish airlines were interviewed. Material-based content analysis was used to analyse the answers. Based on the results, findings and development proposals were created. Most of the recommendations were related to managing one's own life through rosters, days off and vacations published by the employer. Even moderately easy to implement improvements could affect the well-being of employees. Savings measures and the pursuit of profit may override occupational health and well-being at work and the truth that employees are the company's most important asset. None of the interviewees had experienced inequality or gender-related problems. Everyone had a support network in place for childcare and work-life balance was realized to some extent. According to interview participants, maintaining a full-time work-load was deemed burdensome for a woman balancing familial responsibilities