I’d bet that, even controlling for socioeconomic status, we wouldn’t have a huge hiring preference for non-white and non-male pilots.

That doesn’t seem to stop people here from complaining about how easy minorities have it in aviation or that they are “displacing” people who should have the job instead.

You'd "bet that." Because you just have a feeling?

It looks like anecdotes work on both sides of this argument.

We already have the numbers. Just look at your seniority list and figure out the percentage of women. Then compare that to the FAA database.

I think I’ve been fairly consistent in saying that nobody has statistics either way. When you make an affirmative claim that white males are disadvantaged and/or displaced, you should support it with evidence. Generally, one doesn’t provide evidence to hold a skeptical position. Hence the “prove god doesn’t exist” logical fallacy that many theists run into.

Garbage in. Garbage out. No one is disputing there are more men than women pilots. People are disputing the hurdles and difficulties various people face.

How many women even want to be pilots? No one has any access to the data. What’s the percentage of women who start out Day 1 in flight school and make it to a major 10 years later? What’s the percentage of men? Of minorities.

Just because there are fewer doesn’t mean they have a tougher journey.

How many men are beauticians?

Well then this argument will never be resolved.

About 5% of the commercial pilot population in the US is female. That means they should make up about 5% of the applications and 5% of the seniority list. If your company has more than that, then there may be a case for reverse discrimination.

My point is that even in the most extreme cases, we are talking about a dozen more women at one company than one would expect. Yet somehow, those few women are preventing hundreds of men on this site from getting hired at a major.

Point taken. Without valid statistics this issue will never be resolved.

Cheers.

This assumes an even distribution throughout the age and seniority spectrum. That seems unlikely

It has little to do with hurt feelings about displacement.

If someone has achieved their seat in the cockpit because they bought it, or because they're ethnic, or because of their gender, or any reason other than they're well qualified for the position, they become a weak link. Nobody wants to be saddled with a weak link.

Please provide any evidence at all that this is a problem.