Is sexism/racism still an issue?
 

Just came across this article from 2014 which discusses the lack of diversity in airline cockpits. I was interested in seeing input from actual pilots to see if the things said in this article hold any weight. Have you seen any discrimination in hiring practices at your airline or is this a non-issue?

Airlines' flight decks lack diversity | TheHill

Lack of diversity does not equal racism/sexism.

I did not mean to imply that and apologize if I came off that way. To clarify, I was referring to the opening quote of the article if this is even a true quote.

"The chief pilot asked me to hire a black female pilot so we could check off a 'diversity' box on a reporting form so we could keep our government contracts," a human resources director of a mid-sized air cargo transport company told me last year at a pilot recruiting event. "Once I did hire that woman, the chief pilot came back to me and said to never hire another one [black female pilot] again. Things are gonna stay the way they've always been around here," she said.

I find all of that to be rather suspicious. Human Resources, not the chief pilot, would be more likely to know what "mix" of employees was required. Second, that's a rather boldly racist stance to take for a chief pilot. "Mid-sized air cargo transport company" could imply a LOT of places and is rather vague...

In general, no, this sort of thing does not happen from what I've seen in "mid-size" (500+ pilots) and up departments.

"The failure has in part contributed to the monolithic demography of U.S. ATPs and a culture of whiteness and masculinity in the flight deck."

Sorry, but with this sentence I cannot take the author of that piece seriously.

^^^lol. Agreed.

The comments posted at the end of this article are very sad and I hope this isn't the way the majority of our country feels. The problem is, it's difficult to determine if someone got hired or not hired based on whether they were a minority or not without having all the information. I'm sure we have all sat with someone in the cockpit who said they were not hired even with what seems to be extraordinary qualifications and for the captains, someone that was hired with zero jet PIC time even with thousands of applicants with PIC time out there. The problem is we just don't have all the info, we don't know the applicant's past, if there were any skeletons, how the interview went, etc. I'm sure a few qualified applicants have been passed over in the name of diversity, but I'm also certain more than a few qualified minorities have been passed over for the reasons mentioned in the article (if not in recent history, for sure prior to the 60's and 70's). I have heard managers in the past (not at airlines) say some pretty egregious things when they felt they were in good company. My point is we don't have all the info we need to make a determination of discrimination in either direction. I'd like to think it happens both directions and comes in a wash at the end.

Two separate things, not to be confused...

The traditional airline career path began in the military. Both military and airlines have long career pipelines and you cannot jump in or out in the middle. Today's senior widebody Captains began their journey in Vietnam.

Society has changed, and the military has followed suite, but the senior pilots of today reflect a snapshot of 1970's demographics. What you see there is 40 years time-late, and does not reflect opportunities today. Both the airlines and the military are falling all over themselves to hire non-whites and women, when they can find them.

If you pay attention to the younger pilots, you'll see much more diversity but still plenty of white males. Reason for that is that aviation is a long journey and usually starts with childhood interests. White males are more likely to be rural or suburban gear-heads, and to pursue technical education relevant to aviation. Woman tend to prefer white-collar education and work to technical fields, so the pool of interested minority/female applicants is limited just based on their own interests. I don't consider that to be a fault of the aviation industry, if there's a problem maybe society needs to provide better early education opportunities to some demographics.

The majority of female pilots tend to drop out of aviation, or take career off-ramps to raise kids. Their choice, but entirely understandable...it's a rough lifestyle with kids.

As far as cockpit culture, with the few rare exceptions that exist in any walk of life, you'll find it very welcoming and open to anyone (we even have trans pilots now, although I can't say they are warmly accepted just yet).

If you're interested and willing to do what it takes to get there, you'll have a good experience. Although you'll probably have to discuss politics you don't agree with at some point, but all of us have had that experience.

Great post rickair.

You're forgetting, however, that in today's society it's a crime that every occupation isn't populated in exact proportion with societal demographics. Not enough female scientists, not enough NFL coaches of color (never mind the player demographic -- that's illusory.) Not enough women in boardrooms. Not enough female law partners. This institutional sexism and racism needs to be rectified by any means necessary -- even if it means forcing some people to like the idea of flying airplanes and science. In the name of diversity.

No excuses will be tolerated.

:rolleyes:

It all depends on what side of the equation that you fall. Lots of variables there. You would have to see it from both sides to truly understand. This is something that no one can truly accomplish.

It is also highly dependent on corporate culture at specific companies. A fair amount of larger companies make a point of getting their "tokens" to address any implication of sexism/racism.

I have seen a fair amount of diversity at the smaller operators that I have worked at. Is there still sexism/racism? You bet, when not in an audience that demands "PC" behavior, there is still a lot of nasty rhetoric that follows the typical stereotypic attitudes. Day to day, probably not as much as in the past.

I find it hilarious that most people that deny the existence of racism/sexism are for the most part 100 % not in any of the affected groups.

Overall it might have faded or grown some over the years, it just something that if fairly ingrained in our culture, it's not anything that will fully go away any time soon.