Originally Posted by jcountry

I mentioned a while back I knew of a couple of women who were hired at XXXX back in the day with only temporary commercial certs. 250 hours-and not even a FE license. Both had gotten calls for an interview from airline XXXX without even applying. That airline was actually going down the list of new comm pilots and offering interviews to anyone who seemed like a female. Some had comm certs for other purposes, and had no intention of working for any airline-some just wanted to instruct part time or crop dust, etc..... There are plenty of fine women pilots out there, but I don't think anyone is ready for the kind of flying we do at that experience level.

Your last paragraph is off the mark. Customers and shareholders demand (and deserve) safety and competence. The fun stuff about what people look like should be entirely irrelevant.

Percentages shouldn't matter. If they do, how about I get a sweet gig in the NBA? I suck at basketball-but hey.... There's a % for you-and how about slapping me some majic equality??. Need more people looking like me there, don't we now?? (Why shouldn't their owners/fans demand and expect equality??) Could it be that it's no fun to watch people who suck try and play basketball??

I'd submit that our line of work is much more intolerant of ineptitude or incompetence. Consequences of a screw up are much worse than having to watch boring people who suck try and play a game poorly. Safety is what should matter in aviation. Hiring the best person for the job should be the goal. Other factors should be irrelevant.