
During Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day, we celebrate the historic and game-changing contributions of women in aerospace and honor our female teammates who are making a positive impact on our company and the world.
We know that when we build a more equitable future for women, we build a better future for all.
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.
The underrepresentation of girls and women in STEM fields is a global challenge.
We’re focused on building a global, diverse STEM talent pipeline and developing early-career talent through a variety of internships, rotation programs and professional development opportunities. Boeing invests in young women in STEM to encourage top talent to join the industry. In 2021, Boeing inspired an estimated 2.7 million young women and girls through various STEM engagement programs and contributed $51 million across 423 grants to support young women and girls in STEM globally.
Boeing is also a global supporter of Catalyst — a recognized leader in gender equity with a mission to accelerate progress for women through workplace inclusion
Women have played an important role in Boeing history since the company’s earliest days, beginning with seamstress Rosie Farrar, hired by William Boeing in 1916 to stitch linen wings for the B & W seaplanes, and Helen Holcombe, who became the first woman in the drafting department one year later.
Attracted by the challenges of aviation and the magic of flight, the trailblazers — female pioneers, aviators, engineers and executives — worked hand in hand with thousands of other dedicated employees to help make Boeing what it is today.
This year we celebrate women’s achievements and significant contributions, past and present, with apparel from the Boeing Store. This assortment represents our commitment to advance gender equity, diversity and inclusion. We strike the #BreakTheBias pose with our partners and allies to represent the challenges that women continue to face, as well as the progress that is being made to empower our women employees across the company and in the communities where we live and work. Join the conversation to #BreakTheBias with #BoeingStore and #WomensHistoryMonth