The Agenda with Steve Paikin (Audio) - Breaking Barriers in Aviation

Episode Date: November 27, 2024

"Don't be silly! Girls can't fly." That's the message seven-year-old Lola Reid Allin heard from her father. More than 60 years later, she shares the highs and lows of her flying career, societal expectations of women of the time and how she's hoping to inspire the next generation of young women. She takes Jeyan Jeganathan up above the clouds to talk about her memoir, "Highway to the Sky: An Aviator's Journey."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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And discover your 2-Point TVO. From a very young age, Lola Reed Allen's eyes were drawn to the sky. When I was a little girl I'd walk home and I was fascinated by the clouds. I guess I've always just wanted to be up there flying with the birds. Her fascination with aviation started with the aerial acrobatics of the Royal Canadian Air Force's Golden Hawks, seen here in this CBC archival footage. Her first flight came during a family trip from Toronto to the prairies. Seven-year-old Lola didn't know it then, but she was destined for a career up above the clouds. It was like a roller coaster ride at the fair.

It was in 1962. We were going from Toronto to Regina for a family reunion. And we'd gone many times before. We'd buy a car, buy a train, never buy an airplane. In 1962, people just did not hop into airplanes. Growing up in the 60s, the trip would serve as a reminder that a career in aviation for women was just a foolish dream. They were good people, just not attentive parents, and my father was very definitely

misogynist. So when I said, hey dad, this is great, when I grow up I want to be a pilot, he was like, don't be silly, girls don't fly. The Belleville, Ontario native is now sharing her journey as a pilot in her memoir, Highway to the Sky, an Aviator's Journey. So I'm just checking the fuselage here just to make sure that it is invisibly dented. Are there any problems?

Throughout her three decade career, Lola worked as a pilot, flight instructor, and commercial aviator. These days, she doesn't get up in the air as much as she did as a a pilot, flight instructor, and commercial aviator. These days she doesn't get up in the air as much as she did as a working pilot, but we met up with her at the Durham Flight Center in Oshawa, Ontario to return to her happy place. All right so you're both still buckled in. It was empowering. I remember the first time I went solo, the plane literally like just whooshed off into the air.

It was a beautiful day and I do like to fly solo. It's quiet and no one has any expectations of you, except to get the plane back down on the ground. There were however many expectations of women at the time, none of which included them flying thousands of feet in the sky. Women pilots have always been far and few between, even though they've been flying as long as men.

The first licensed female pilot was Ramon de la Roche in France, March 8th of 1910. But because of social constraints, social expectations, women didn't fly and there were no role models. It would take several more years after her maiden flight before Lola would learn to fly. With a child and secure career in banking, her then husband surprised her with flight lessons. When the instructor asked if I wanted to take control, I said, no way, I want to have a lesson first

before I take control. I was pretty much in awe of all the the instrumentation there's a lot of you know bells and whistles inside. It was a little daunted. That lesson would be the beginning of a new chapter. Lola would divorce and leave her job at the bank to pursue a full-time career in aviation. She would amass many firsts in her more than 6,000 hours in the air. I didn't really feel any challenges until I started, as my grandfather so eloquently put, started taking jobs away from men. Then I started really getting the pushback. And part of that, again, from my colleagues,

was that they didn't understand why. Their mothers were stay-at-home moms. Their girlfriends or wives were... I was the odd person out, and I was trying to fit in. A couple of them were definitely against me, but most of them were like, they just really didn't understand why I wanted to do it. According to Lola,

fewer than 6% of commercially licensed pilots are women, a number that hasn't grown since the 80s. Tales of gender discrimination in the aviation industry are well documented. In 1934, Helen Richie, the first female commercial pilot, had to fight for her place in the sky. She didn't last very long because the all-male flight crew basically drummed her out of business.

They persuaded what is now the Federal Aviation Authority in America that women shouldn't fly at night and they shouldn't fly in poor weather conditions. You're going to have bad weather days, you're gonna, it's gonna be nighttime. And so after, within a few months she quit. But it wasn't until nearly 40 years later, 1973, that the first three commercial pilots were hired in Canada and America. One in Canada, two in America.

Lola has faced blatant and subtle forms of sexual discrimination during her career. She's been offered preferential treatment in return for sexual favours, lost jobs to less experienced male pilots and been mistaken for a flight attendant. On some of the northern bases where we'd have to load baggage, that's normally the job of the first officer so I'd be out there loading baggage and men would be aghast that I would be loading the baggage and they would some men would literally try and pull the bags from my hand and I was like no like you wouldn't ask a man if he was capable of doing that so just let me do it so what I would actually do because after a

while it gets pretty frustrating I would take the suitcase and I would just whoomf, whoomf it into the baggage and it would, you know, ricochet around. And so, again, those are well-meaning people, but in essence, though they're well-meaning, they're still also saying in their mind, oh, she's not really capable of doing this job, or where's the guy? Just 10 years ago, a female pilot of a WestJet flight was left this note from one of her

male passengers. It reads, The cockpit of airliner is no place for a woman. A woman, being a mother, is the most honour, not as captain. I wish WestJet could tell me a fair lady is at the helm so I can book another flight." And I thought this is the kind of stuff that I put up with what's going on and then it was that point I decided that I what I didn't really want to go fly commercially anymore but what I wanted to do was encourage more young women to become pilots. Lola is a member of the 99s, an international organization that provides

networking and mentorship for professionals and recreational female pilots. She's also part of the Northern Lights Aero Foundation here in Canada with the same goal, to inspire the next generation of female aviators. I proved to myself that I could believe in myself and I could accomplish something that was different, that was worthwhile. I'd like to hope that people will be inspired that despite the odds you can achieve your goals to think about what you might really want to do and go for it, even if it's not in aviation.

Because I do talk about a lot of other things. It's a snapshot of what life was like for many women and what the expectations were. And I still think that in the back of many people's minds, those expectations are still there.