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Why Aren't There More Female Airline Pilots?
It’s a sad fact, but it’s a rarity to find women in the aviation industry. The Air Line Pilots Association, which represents pilots at major and regional carriers in the United States and Canada, says that women make up just 5% of its 53,000 members. Globally, it’s even worse — only 4,000 of the 130,000 airline pilots are women, according to the International Society of Women Airline Pilots. (www.forbes.com) Más...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
I have been a professor of aviation in a university flight program for over 40 years. Through most of that time we had about 25% female students. These students general performed at the same level as male students, yet for years the percentage of female airline pilots remained at about 1%. During the same period pilot source study's show that airline pilot source changed from about 80% military to about about 60% civilian. If 5% of today's airline pilots are female we have some improvement in this area, however we are currently averaging closer to 15% female in our collage pilot programs.
People can take this and throw a big sociological fit all they want, but there's the undeniable reality that men do not have babies. Men don't get pregnant, they don't have babies, and they traditionally aren't expected to stay home for any meaningful length of time for their kids. So, that's more time to work up seniority lists, earn promotions, and otherwise move up the career ladder.
It's difficult for a lot of women to do that, and even when given the opportunity the reality is a lot of women totally voluntarily sacrifice hours, seniority, and other career-related progress, for their families. I know of two women in particular that had management jobs at two different Fortune 500 companies and voluntarily walked away because of their family concerns - they took a major household income hit to prioritize their families. It's not like there aren't real discrimination issues out there but these kinds of situations can account for a pretty decent portion of the wage gap everyone gets so fired up about all the time as if the only value anyone has is listed on their W2... that's a whole different conversation, anyway.
When you add in what the airline industry is like... well, I think all of us around here are either in the airline industry or close enough to it to know that it's not exactly the most family-oriented field out there. Heck, I know two guys off the top of my head who walked away from a regional airline because of their family.
It's difficult for a lot of women to do that, and even when given the opportunity the reality is a lot of women totally voluntarily sacrifice hours, seniority, and other career-related progress, for their families. I know of two women in particular that had management jobs at two different Fortune 500 companies and voluntarily walked away because of their family concerns - they took a major household income hit to prioritize their families. It's not like there aren't real discrimination issues out there but these kinds of situations can account for a pretty decent portion of the wage gap everyone gets so fired up about all the time as if the only value anyone has is listed on their W2... that's a whole different conversation, anyway.
When you add in what the airline industry is like... well, I think all of us around here are either in the airline industry or close enough to it to know that it's not exactly the most family-oriented field out there. Heck, I know two guys off the top of my head who walked away from a regional airline because of their family.
As in other male-dominated professions, I think part of the reason why you don't see more women is simply the fact that it's so male-dominated that it's hard for a girl growing up to see herself in that kind of a job.
I know the field of law enforcement is very male-dominated, but because of a lack of female applicants -- at least around here sometimes they'll get 200 applicants and two or three of them might be women.
I know the field of law enforcement is very male-dominated, but because of a lack of female applicants -- at least around here sometimes they'll get 200 applicants and two or three of them might be women.
That's a good point.
American Airlines claimed at Women in Aviation that over the last couple years over 10% of their new hires are women. FWIW, my initial class at my current airline was 20% women. I feel like Im starting to see more women pilots and more male flight attendants.
Bryce, thanks for the info. Congrats on the new job.