To all the Women of BFC,

                Women have been flying since 1908, with still many restrictions set upon them. From the general aviation that women were allowed to participate in starting in 1908, to gaining full access to military and commercial cockpits, as well as the space shuttle and aerospace technology, women have come a long way in the aviation industry. Women now participate in jobs such as ATC, engineers, astronauts and of course full time pilots.

 Taking a look throughout history there have been many notable and inspirational women pilots and women involved in aviation such as Janet Braggs, Amelia Earhart, Jacqueline Cochran, Bessie Coleman and Christine Darden. All of which can be found on the Quick Links section, along with many other accomplished women. These ladies had much more barriers to overcome, so our question in this e-mail is to ask what barriers do women face today?  And how can we overcome these barriers to encourage more female pilots, or to encourage more females in the aviation industry?

Anna Pangrazzi with a group of women aviators are working towards creating a Virtual Canadian Women's Aviation/Aerospace Hall of Fame. Given the great idea and innovation put together by these women, the downside or fallback is that there are very few women that are recognized in the Hall of Fame.

                What we are trying to do is to bring together the women of aviation, pilots, dispatchers, ATC, engineers and so on. We are asking you to be a part of this Women of Aviation network so that we can encourage more females to join aviation. Canada's percentage (along with BFC's percentage) of women pilots goes as far as 6%! Our goal is to bring this percentage up to at LEAST 10%.

                We are trying to gather information on what exactly the barriers are for women in aviation, and how we can change those barriers so that it makes it easier for women to become involved in aviation. We want to hear your feedback, your opinions, your suggestions on how to build bridges and tear down the barriers for women in aviation.

                We would like to devote a page on the BFC website with all our current BFC female members, and we would like to ask your permission to post your name on our List.

We would also like to encourage you to invite your female family or friends who are interested or are involved in aviation to become a part of this network. Not only do we want to see the percentage of BFC women members go up, we would also like to see Canada's percentage go up too. We want to encourage women at other Airports or businesses to start their own Women of Aviation groups at the location in which they reside.  Therefore, building a network that can work as an inspiration to women of all ages.

If you have any further questions please feel free to email us at women@bramfly.com and also let us know if you would like your name posted on our website.