Grazia Vittadini

"The only limits are the ones we impose on ourselves" - Vittadini

The sky is most definitely not the limit when you work in the aeronautics field! Today, we are highlighting the current Chief Technology Officer of Airbus, the company that makes 76 billion dollars annually and dominates the aerospace industry.

Born and raised in Milan, Vittadini never followed what was expected out of most girls, building airplane models out of wood and parts of motorbikes and continuously breaking them apart and putting them back together. Her mother always told her, "If you're passionate about it, you can achieve pretty much anything." Thus, she followed her dreams and graduated from the Polytechnic University of Milan as a design engineer.

Vittadini worked her way up through the company, becoming Airbus' first female board member and CTO. As much as we can proud of her for being the first, we also must recognize the massive gender disparity in the engineering industry. The workforce is made of only 17% women worldwide, and, most of the time, women like Vittadini are having to deal with being the only woman in the room and having to consistently prove that they are "worthy" of even being there.

"There are plenty of different reactions to you as the only female executive in certain discussions or contexts, [ranging] from thinking you are an assistant to one of the other executives to not knowing quite how to deal with you" - Vittadini.

Additionally, strong women like her are constantly criticized for being ambitious. Men and even women call them emotional and domineering and even comment that they should wear clothes that are less feminine. Vittadini believes that "there will always be self-doubt and fear ... [and] people trying to tell you what you can and cannot do." However, you will just have to learn how to brush them aside and stay focused on your own path.