More schoolgirls should take science subjects, according to CityJet chief executive Christine Ourmières.
She said she felt a “huge responsibility” to recruit more women into engineering but is held back because they do not take the right subjects at school.
Ourmières is one of only 15 female airline bosses out of 200 globally.
She told the London Evening Standard that the low number of women in airlines is “ridiculous” and added: “I think it comes from education.
“The fact that women most of the time are pushed into subjects like English or literature, and it’s just not expected – people are not used to seeing women doing maths and physics.
“I was lucky because my father pushed me to study engineering. [It was] very pragmatic. He felt it would help me find employment. It is very difficult to find good resources in the engineering world.”
Ourmières studied maths and physics at school before taking a masters degree in aerospace, aeronautical and astronautical engineering but just 10% of students on the course were female.
She worked in maintenance for Air France and became chief executive of CityJet in 2010.
Six per cent of the carrier’s pilots are women, compared with 3% worldwide.