Improving representation

The historical underrepresentation of women in STEM fields is a longstanding global challenge that is still evident in aerospace today with the potential to be augmented by the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on women and women of color. Now more than ever, we must strengthen our commitments to gender equity and support women in the workplace.

Women represent 23% of Boeing’s workforce in the United States and 24% of our workforce outside of the United States. While the representation of women at Boeing is in line with the broader aerospace and defense industry, we want to do better. As we strive to achieve our near-term aspirations to close representation gaps for historically underrepresented groups and achieve parity in retention rates of all groups at Boeing, we are paying close attention to the representation and retention of women in our workforce and enhancing resources to support women in building fulfilling careers at Boeing.

Empowering Women at Boeing

We’ve expanded support offerings for working families, including virtual work options, flexible work schedules and working-parent coaching. Coaching services emphasize stress management and work-life integration strategies. Our enhanced Total Rewards portfolio offers benefits such as 12 weeks of paid parental leave, adoption assistance, and subsidized back-up child care and elder care. The Return Flight Program in the U.S. offers professionals across several functions a path back into the workforce after a career break.

Boeing Women Inspiring Leadership (BWIL) is the largest of our employee-led business resource groups, with 33 chapters worldwide. BWIL not only helps position women to lead Boeing into its next century, it also supports employees in strengthening gender partnerships and breaking down gender role stereotypes that hamper progress.

BWIL’s mission is to “create an environment where women can succeed” and does so with the help of Executive Council championship by Leanne Caret, President and CEO of Boeing Defense, Space & Security.

Seek, Speak & Listen

Our team is focused on building three habits — seeking, speaking and listening — to strengthen our global team and drive stronger business outcomes. The Seek, Speak & Listen habits empower us to connect across differences, learn from one another and make better decisions.