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MONTREAL – Assil Bedewi loves the complex task of directing the movements of the dozens of aircraft that criss-cross her screen as they take off or come in for landing.
As an air traffic controller for Nav Canada, it’s her responsibility to ensure the planes swooping in and out of some of Canada’s busiest airports have a safe path to take off and land without crossing paths.
But while the 34-year-old is thriving in a job that’s regularly described as one of the world’s most stressful, she remains a minority in a field that’s largely still dominated by men.
According to Nav Canada, the private company that manages Canadian civil air navigation, less than 25 per cent of the workforce at the Montreal control centre are women.
It’s something they’re trying to change, in part by teaming up with Elevate, a volunteer-run network that promotes aviation careers for women.
Bedewi says she doesn’t know why more women aren’t flocking to a job that often pays six figures and only requires a high-school education, other than to assume they don’t know about it.
