One pilot says she finds it detrimental to progress when female passengers give her over-enthusiastic praise because she is a woman.
When Ruth Smith goes to work, she is one of just 5 per cent, give or take, of global employees in her role who are women.
Smith is a pilot with British Airways (BA) and flies commercial Boeing 777 planes.
While women are heavily involved in the aviation industry in jobs like cabin crew and air traffic control, they have historically been sidelined when it comes to flying or fixing planes.