Women at Work: More women pursuing careers as pilots

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Meanwhile, women in the United States are embracing their new-found career option - flying planes. This once male-dominated line of work is opening doors wider to women who have a particular passion for flying. KARINA HUBER has the story.

Linda Sollars wanted to fly for as long as she can remember. But it wasn't until her mid-thirties that she flew professionally.

In her teenage years, when she approached her high school guidance counsellor about becoming a pilot, she was told it was not an option.

LINDA SOLLARS, FIRST OFFICER JETBLUE "They said, well you can't. That's a guy's job. You can't fly because you're female, but you can become a flight attendant."

More women are flying today than in the 70s, but flying is still very much a man's business. According to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, only seven percent of licensed pilots are women. They represent only four percent of those licensed to fly for airlines. But change could be on the horizon.

KARINA HUBER NEW YORK "For women aspiring to work in aviation, now could be a better time than ever. That's because there's a pilot shortage in the United States and as a result, airlines as well as flight schools like this one - the Infinity Flight School in New Jersey - are actively recruiting females."

GREGORY JOHN, PRESIDENT INFINITY FLIGHT GROUP "As we saw with the Southwest incident, women tend to be very calm under pressure. In aviation when things tend to happen, we have a lot of procedures that we go through and sometimes it's important to just slow down and go through the procedures. And I think inherently women sometimes do a better job at that, depending on the situation."

Cindy Treyger is a student at Infinity. She used to be a Russian linguist in the U.S. Air Force. She, like Sollars, is pursuing her dream later in life-mainly because she didn't think being a pilot was within her reach.

CINDY TREYGER FLIGHT SCHOOL STUDENT "It just didn't seem realistic. It was kind of fantastical. Something you see other people do."

It's a sentiment echoed by Christina Reichold who is also working on her pilot's license. Her father was a pilot as is her brother. She hopes she's next.

CHRISTINA REICHOLD FLIGHT SCHOOL STUDENT "I started to hear stories about my brother and I saw the passion that he had when he flew - and I was like hey this is something really neat - you get paid to travel and fly. That's awesome. Why not give it a try."

Sollars, who mentors others, hopes more women will realize that they, too, can become pilots, but for now, they remain a curiosity.

LINDA SOLLARS, FIRST OFFICER JETBLUE "There is rarely a flight that I take that I don't get a double take when I'm saying goodbye. 'Oh, you fly that? Did you land this plane?' Or, they'll look past me and say tell the pilot it was a good landing. So, people are it's just not that common."

But, maybe not for long. Karina Huber, CGTN, New York.