His argument is that there being no women is an old problem, not a new one. That with all of the men retiring and this supposedly craaaazy amount of women getting preferential treatment, the total levels are skewed and thus conceal this preference.

Even looking at the few regionals with “high” percentages of women as a the “new” baseline for all of these women taking men’s jobs (a whopping 6-7%!) or statistics from the US Navy (a whole 7%!) and hiring that’s publicly available from, say, Delta in 2016 (9%!), and projections that average about 400/year for each of the big 3 (I have seen these projections and some will hire more like AA, and some less, like United) to get from 7%!to that 9%, you are concerned about.... 20-30 women getting all of this “favoritism.”

There’s far likely to be someone’s son getting the treatment you’re unhappy about.

As the other poster said, make yourself stand out and worry about the 1000+ dudes per year getting these jobs, not the small percentage of women trying to succeed in a world where they still have to earn the job up against a group of people who think they are being shown favoritism, regardless of their level of qualification.

It’s been tiresome to watch a friend who is a regional captain with a doctorate struggle for years and finally get hired, and some dude with less experience no bachelors cries foul. True story.

What I said was not an argument, it was a statement of fact. Up until 1976 the USAF didn’t permit female aviators AT ALL and they continued to be underrepresented among military flyers for years after that. And a disproportionate share of people in aviation, particularly at the majors, are drawn from ex-military flyers. With a (back then) six year ADSC for UPT, that means these people couldn’t have even been entering in to civil aviation until 1982 and not in any serious numbers until the nineties. So yeah, females really WERE underrepresented in the airline industry all of the last century.

So if they really HAVE achieved parity now, then yes, they have been way disproportionately successful in the last two decades if they have ivercome the legacy of underrepresentation.

The argument that because of the small numbers involved, this is not important, is somewhat fallacious. Rates are rates, and that’s what demographics are based upon.

I'm surprised no one ever mentions the sacrifices women make to their careers when deciding to have kids. I personally took 4 years off from flying because I felt it was important to be home for the first year and wanted to breastfeed. If anyone thinks it is possible to fly and breastfeed let me tell you a story about a three hour flight and a bumpy landing...and then really didn't feel I could do the regional gig until they were both pretty self sufficient. My husband is a carpenter and frequently works a long drive from home. So not that I have had a bad career or life, just that I have a different start. I have a ton of hours and am working to finish my degree but would also like to think that I have specific multitasking skills and an organizational black belt that are traits valuable in an airline pilot. I think if you want someone who knows what hard work is then any working mom is a good candidate!