Women In Aviation International Opens 2026 Scholarship Program

News Discussion
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Originally published at: Women in Aviation International Opens 2026 Scholarship Program - AVweb

More than $200,000 will be available.

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Sounds discriminatory.

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Discriminatory? Not even close.

WAI scholarships are open to all genders. You just need to be a member and support the mission of bringing more women into aviation. Simple.

Here’s why it still matters (FAA data, Dec 2024):

– Total women pilots: 91,694 → 10.8%

– Students: 15.9%

– Private: 8.9%

– Commercial: 10.0%

– ATP: 5.5%

– CFIs: 9.0%

– Drone pilots: 8.7%

Nobody’s getting left out, just more folks getting a fair shot. That’s what progress looks like.

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How do they define “woman” ?

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Maybe women just don’t want to be in aviation to satisfy your numbers game Raf. Did you ever think of that Raf?

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You’re such a misandrist Raf…

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Glad to hear the numbers of women pilots growing, however, student pilots are not truly pilots. Regardless of gender, large numbers of student pilots give up flying before earning their certificates. It is preferable to examine only the numbers of actual women pilots who are certified by the FAA.

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WAI scholarships are open to all genders.

Yes, at least in theory. But a quick spot-check of their actual scholarship recipients suggests that ‘Y’ chromosomes had best stay home.

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@BGanson

Fair enough, student pilots aren’t fully certified yet. But let’s not pretend they don’t count. They hold FAA-issued certificates. They may take ground school, get to solo, or complete on not their certification. They’re logging hours, making decisions, and building the foundation every certified pilot stands on.

The Student Pilot certificate is the official entry point into the pilot pipeline. No one skips it. Not the CFIs. Not the airline captains. Not the charter operators. Every one of them started as a student pilot.

They also fill the seats at flight schools, keep instructors flying, and keep the trade alive. Pull student pilots out of the equation and the system grinds down fast. Ask any CFI or FBO owner.

And let’s look at the bigger picture:
– In 2012, there were 26,854 women holding FAA pilot certificates
– By 2022, that number rose to 30,244 certified women pilots
– ATP numbers nearly doubled from ~4,200 to over 8,200
– Commercial and CFI numbers also jumped by 25–35%
That’s growth, not shrinkage—and it all started in the student ranks.

So yes, student pilot numbers matter, because they are the future, and right now, they’re trending in the right direction.

1 Like
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Nobody cares about your stats Raf…

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I knew the moment I read the title, card carrying members of the He Man Woman Hater’s Club would be jumping in, beating the chest with the thought “Women don’t belong in the air, just in the kitchen”.

I was not disappointed, but honestly Muffy takes the cake :wink:

Muffy, maybe women want to be in aviation, they maybe just don’t want to sit next to your “women are second-class” ass. Stats, numbers, well Muffman, they are important so you saying that makes me wonder how you even take off…seeing as you don’t care tor “stats”.

Here’s one…Women in the US are a majority in this country and that number is actually slowly going up. Now, seeing how we keep reading that the US needs more pilots, and women making up a majority of the population, where do you think those pilots may come from…Mars?

Somehow I feel you’d rather have some incompetent male you can swap bro stories with instead of a qualified female pilot, though she may surprise you and laugh at your penis…jokes, of course.

It always amazes me there are still male jamoke pilots that carry this insecurity that they are inferior to women, most likely they are, because so many of the men I look up to in aviation were or are just the opposite, seeing women as equals and treating them as such.

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Again, maybe women just don’t care about your numbers and what you believe they should be doing with their lives in order to satisfy your numbers game. How about just leaving them alone and letting them do what they want to do. I don’t think they really care what you think.

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Its seriously puzzling, why a simple presser from WAI has to trigger any sort of discussion or comments in the first place.

Its simple to understand information about available scholarships. Those interested in applying can apply, those unaffected by it, skip the article. The article is not soliciting opinions, not a single question is asked.

WAI is a bonafide organization and the news-consumers intellectual inability to accept this as a simple news-piece and instead revert to stupid trolling, is embarrassing.

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Not puzzling at all. These so called benign, generic stories always have a back drop of women, or, minorities. In this specific story, you have to have been a member of WAI for a specific period of time. In addition, how many members are something other than women? For you numbers guys, I’ll bet it is somewhat skewed compared to the majority of population.

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It’s not hard to see we’ve become rudderless, sophomoric. Leaders used to say things like “We have nothing to fear but fear itself,” and the nation listened. Nowadays we fear everything that threatens revealing our loss of strength and character - even women.

Recently, mouths of hatred - with supreme irony - spewed examples like “Happy Memorial Day to all, including the scum that spent the last four years trying to destroy our country.” DJT
This pathetic drivel is actually accepted and supported by a large, lazy, anti-intellectual citizenry.

So division is progressively replacing unification as we fly without a compass, even to the point of now being comfortable with epicaricacy. It’s embarrassing, but it also has a sense of permanent change and grave danger.

Best wishes ladies and all the wonderful girls with aviation hearts for the global outreach event “Girls In Aviation Day” and the WAI scholarship program!

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Pathetic sums it up.

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Can you imagine a “White Men In Aviation International” organization?

What does the Congressional White Caucus in congress have to say about this?

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