IT’S a bird, it’s a plane…no, it’s local paraglider Kirsten Seeto you’ve spotted, soaring through the clouds above Mystic Mountain.

The 50-year-old Wandiligong woman has been paragliding for 17 years after discovering ‘parapente’ during a trip to Spain in 2005.

“I returned from travelling and got my paragliding licence in 2007,” she said.

“I’d already had an interest in flying before that and had my solo pilot licence at the age of 16; I’d seen Top Gun in high school and figured I could do that.

“I tried to join the airforce but was too short to fly an aircraft and I didn’t see a financial pathway for me in being a commercial airline pilot, and it’s an expensive hobby, so I put aviation to the side for 15 years.

“I wasn’t instantly taken with paragliding; it’s a lot of hard work to learn and a lot of hiking up hills and mountains with heavy equipment, but once I got to the stage where I could launch myself off a hill and stay in the air to admire the views that’s when I was hooked.”

For the first five years Kirsten simply enjoyed the freedom and joy of the sport, before looking at the competition side of things as a way to improve her skill and competency.

“It was also a way to meet people but I discovered the number of female competitors was significantly lower," she said.

“The percentage of women in paragliding sits around eight per cent.

“Through the competition scene we started talking about why the number of women participating and women in general in the sport remained so low for years and that got me thinking.

“I talked to more senior women who had been in the sport longer than I had and didn’t really come up with answers but my name was brought up when the NSW paragliding association had landed a grant to support women in sport.

“As a result I ran 12 events over three years trying to get more answers; essentially running weekends for women where we’d go fly and in evenings would chat and talk about everything related to paragliding and that's where I started gathering info on why we were unrepresented.

“I presented the findings, which included surveys, to our clubs and associations to help all sporting clubs in paragliding to address this if needed.”

The barriers for participating that women named ranged from time commitments, gendered prejudices and equipment unsuitable for smaller bodies.

“When the weather is optimal, you essentially have to drop everything to get to a paragliding site, and there’s a disproportionate level of domestic responsibilities for women who can’t do that,” Kirsten said.

“It means they get less flying time, and it therefore blocks a pathway to competency.

“The not so subtle barriers were women being assumed to be drivers for pilots, rather than flying themselves.

“Paragliding equipment is also made for bigger, heavier people and can be an additional challenge to work around when flying.

“This does effect men too.

“If you’re struggling to be a competent pilot you start feeling like there’s something wrong with you, or it becomes really discouraging to keep going.”

Kirsten made it to a ranking of 24 in the Australian competition scene, and was often ranked the second highest woman competitor, but ultimately stopped competing due to risk.

“I thought I could get into top 10 if I tried hard enough but the higher-end, more advanced equipment is really designed for men,” she said.

“Partly because the paragliding market is small to begin with and the impact of sexism with those subtle barriers means there’s not the impetus for manufacturers to develop high end equipment for smaller bodies.

“I was having to buy large equipment and carry eight to 10 litres of water to fly because you have to be heavier for those larger wings.

“Due to a bad launch and all that extra weight I injured myself and thought of the risk vs reward, so I stopped competing.

“Now I can enjoy flying by being true to what got me there in the first place; choosing beautiful days.”

Despite the continued low numbers of women in paragliding, Kirsten’s advocacy has increased the Northeast Victoria Hang-gliding Club’s female participation rate to 16 per cent; double the national rate.

“There’s no reason why you can’t do it,” she said.

“Do a course at a recommended school and ask how you can be connected to other women in the sport.

“Our community is happy to do that, everyone wants to see new pilots in the sport, you just need to ask the question.”

Kirsten’s story is part of an upcoming book release; Take Flight by Kathy Mexted, with author talks throughout October.