From being women-friendly, our industry should consider ways to be more family-friendly: Liana Coyne

This
International Women's Day, Liana Coyne, Chief Operating Officer of Coyne Airways shares her insight with
The STAT Trade Times on working in a male-dominated industry. She observes when
we are considering why more women are not attracted to a career in air cargo we
should ask ourselves what barriers there might be, formal and informal.

At any
point in time in your career, have you faced queries like why did you choose
air cargo as a career while it is considered more as a ‘masculine’ concept? Is
it the tendency that is keeping away women from this sector that it is only
meant for men?

On reflection, I think most jobs I have had been
in male-dominated industries. I remember going for an interview for an
internship with an NGO focused on conflict resolution in Africa while I was at
university and one of the panels asked me if it would be an issue joining an
all-male team. The thought hadn’t even occurred to me at the time, and I asked
simply, “No. Should it be?”

I think that, when we are considering why more
women are not attracted to a career in air cargo we should ask ourselves what
barriers there might be, formal and informal. Is there a reason why a woman
might not be comfortable or productive on your team? If so, why and what can
you do to remedy that?

I think one major question to consider is how do
we, as an industry, become more family-friendly? The statistics show that the
wage gap between men and women who are not mothers is closing, but persists
between men and women who are mothers. This ‘motherhood penalty’ is because women
are still expected to be the primary caregivers for children and that may lead
to employers either shying away from employing or promoting women in their
childbearing years or women choosing careers or positions where they can better
manage work and childcare.

I would can i buy ambien online like to see a world where both mothers
and fathers are seen as equal caregivers. I think that will take a cultural and
probably legislative shift in most countries. However, on a company level, I
think there are steps that can be taken to enable both men and women to balance
their roles as caregivers and workers, particularly with the advances in
technology.

If we are to take something positive from the
coronavirus crisis, I think that it has created the right conditions to rethink
the workplace:

1. It
has underscored the importance of family relationships;

2. It
has exposed the tremendous amount of work that goes into raising a family; and

3. It
has shown that we do not necessarily need to be tethered to our desks to be
productive.

When life returns to normal, I think many of us
will miss the time we spend at home with our children. I hope that we will be
able to restructure our days so that we can balance business needs with
spending quality time with the people we love: that might look like leaving
early from work to pick up our kids and spend an hour in the park with them or
making sure we make it for bedtime every day and then working from home to make
up the hours.

An apt
question to ask a woman now is how did you manage work from home and personal
life as air cargo is witnessing busiest hours due to the pandemic?

As a single parent, I have been very fortunate
and privileged to have a robust support network at home.

What are
the initiatives implemented by you in your organization to encourage women to
choose air cargo as a profession?

We are a family company and family is at the
heart of what we do. We do not have any initiatives aimed specifically at women
but we try to be sensitive to the family commitments of both mothers and
fathers.