Assistant Manager of Cargo iQ Megha Palkar reflects on the current status of female representation in the air cargo industry as the world acknowledges International Women’s Day 2023.

“Historically, there has been a lack of gender parity in the sector, but I believe improvement is evident and we’re seeing more women across a variety of positions in air cargo,” she said.

“There are far fewer limitations for women now in terms of specific roles; for example, anybody can lift a box nowadays because anybody can operate a forklift, and I know several female warehouse managers – a role that might previously have been thought of as a male position.

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“I’m hopeful that a mindset shift is occurring in terms of who can do what as the nature of jobs changes and that it will continue to become easier to fit both men and women into this space.”

Palkar highlights a need to do things differently if we are to collectively attract both male and female workers to the sector going forward.

“Different people are motivated by different things, and we need to examine what needs to be done to attract more women,” she said.

“There is plenty of research on this subject – for example, using the word ‘creative’ in job adverts has been found to increase the number of female applicants.”

“We need to put this type of research to use.”