Editorial | Teenage pilot shows the way for women

At 19, Zara Rutherford has smashed gender stereotypes and been hailed a female role model by becoming the youngest woman to fly solo around the world

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Belgian-British pilot Zara Rutherford poses for photographs after landing in Wevelgem, Belgium on January 20. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 8:14pm, 24 Jan 2022

One reason for the paucity of girls studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects at school is a lack of role models. Belgian-Briton Zara Rutherford can be counted on to inspire with her record-setting around-the-world solo flight. At 19, she is the youngest woman to have accomplished the feat and has also made history by doing so in a microlight aircraft. The achievement required skill, patience, nerves of steel and bravery, but it only takes curiosity and a willingness to break gender stereotypes to embrace the disciplines she espouses and embodies.

Rutherford took 155 days to circumnavigate the world, flying west from Flanders in Belgium and taking in 31 countries on five continents to complete the 52,000km journey. Her plane was not equipped to fly at night or through clouds and she met conditions she had not been trained to deal with, among them wildfires over California, freezing temperatures in Russia, thunderstorms on the equator, smog in India and desert haze over Saudi Arabia. Her parents are pilots and she had harboured ambitions to make the trip since the age of 14. She now plans to study electrical engineering at university and hopes to become an astronaut.

Rutherford’s inspirations were women pioneers, the American aviator Amelia Earhart and Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova. She hopes her accomplishment will encourage more girls to study subjects at school that will lead to them becoming engineers, scientists and pilots. While that is increasingly so in many places, studies show most girls limit themselves with their own gender biases, believing such careers are more suited to men. They may also be dissuaded by parents, teachers and friends driven by gender stereotypes and a lack of female role models.

Nobel Prizes highlight the gender discrepancy; just 3 per cent of science category winners have been women and they have usually shared the award with male peers. Careers in STEM areas offer higher wages and improved earning potential, but the United Nations has found just 28 per cent of researchers are women. Their underrepresentation puts a brake on the global economy and sustainable development. Rutherford offers encouragement.