Most reasonable people would have no reason to think that women commercial pilots are inherently less capable than men. Some of my best pilot friends are chicks.

There is some lingering suspicion about them that comes from two historically legitimate sources:

Military: Fighter/ground attack pilots have to be EXTREMELY aggressive, Just a fact that men tend to be fit this requirement a little better. There are always exceptions. The Clinton folks forced the military to assign some women to aircraft that they didn't belong in, when they would have been just fine in helos or patrol or transport planes. This resulted in some high-visibility fatalities which led to the exposure of unsat training records...women who had FAILED training were put into operational jobs in high-performance aircraft anyway. In the military integrity is paramount, and many officers are still very bitter that their political leadership sacrificed the standards of the worlds most capable military for their own ends. Unfortunately the women involved (who were pawns in the game) and all women in the military have suffered as a result. EVERYTHING about our military is based on competion, and if you have lower official standards for certain people, those people will be viewed as a lower class. The fault is in the system, not in the people.

Affirmative Action: The problem here is that lots of guys want to be pilots. If you have 1000 guys just out of high school, maybe 500 would like to be pilots, 50 pursue it to some degree, 5 get all their ratings, 2 get hired at an airline. With 1000 girls, fewer are interested in the first place...maybe 100 would like to do it, 10 pursue it, one gets all her ratings...Since the airlines go out of their way to hire women, the one with her ratings has a better chance of getting hired than the five guys. The problem here is that you have a larger talent pool to choose from with the guys 2 out of 500 versus 1 out of 100 for the girls. This doesn't mean that the girl is less capable, just that she had less competion to get hired into that reserved-for-a-female job slot, so she MIGHT be less capable but still have got the job anyway. Now if an airline is bound and determined to get a woman through training to meet a quota, then you might have a real problem. This did happen in the past, but I believe it does not occur any longer at most airlines due to some high-profile crashes.

As a CFI the only differences I noticed with women students were that they were usually better at multi-tasking, especially on the radio, but usually had more difficulty with systems. I think this is cultural...in the tenth grade the girls were reading people magazine while the guys were fixing the carburators on the their cars. GA airplanes are a lot like cars.

 

I most certainly agree with you on the part that lots of women are great multi taskers, come on we can drive a car put makeup on and talk on the cell phone all at once! When it comes to systems I can tell you first hand that when I was in class it was assumed that everyone knew what a carburetor was. (sorry but I didn't know anything when it came to systems )

 

Let affirmative action, a disservice to unqualified minorities, and qualified individuals alike, enjoy a long death.

 

A woman captian that I fly with only wants to talk about her cat, herbs, and drink her green tea. I would never chance jokeing about her with anything... not even a knock knock joke for fear of being "offensive

With that being said, we have a couple female FO's that are well liked and do their best to fit in. Crews like and respect them on their merite... not out of "fear."

I think that most girls are ok, but there are a few bad ones. Looking half way cute seems to help in the interview process for some reason. If you don't belive me, ask any female pilot if she thinks she is ugly?

 

I was at my airline when the first black pilot came along and later when the first female pilot was hired. The girls had a tougher time than the black guys, by far. I`ll have to say that,after flying with some of the girls, that they do as good a job as the rest of the guys. I was always real careful about what I said in front of them, because I know for a fact, that if any one of them went to the chief pilot with a gripe, the guy was in deep do-do until he could prove he was blameless. I`ve seen this more than once. My airline initally hunted for female pilots...some government agency put the hurt on the company about not having any female piolts. All that is past history now.

 

I don't know about today, but in the late 80s/early 90s this was definitely the case with some airlines, United being the biggest. Two ladies that I graduated from college with were hired by United with extemely low time. One had 800 hours total and 100 Multi-engine. The other had 1500 total ( mostly C-152 ) and 50 Multi.


TP

 

Mordi: please keep your posts less personal. Generalizations work, you don't have to single out people and bad mouth them. Your Mother should have told you "if you can't say something nice about someone, don't say anything at all". We all know who you are talking about, and I may not disagree, but it was uncalled for on a public forum such as this.

 

Absolutely, the assistant chief pilot at my company told me in person that he's trying to get as many pretty girls hired as possible, even if they don't meet the minimums. Also two captains here told me I could get a pretty girl hired here anytime I want to regardless of their qualifications.

 

Well since I haven't been able to fly with many women pilots I can't give to many personal experiences. I do believe that some affirmative action does occasional help them get a job. However, if I had some way of getting this to work to my advantage I would most likely use it. We all beat ever bush we can when looking for ways to get a better job so I say use every option you have. With that being said I do remember one female student that had trouble keeping her breakfast down even on smooth flights. Thankfully I never had to fly with her though . Having personally flown with E-TOPS, Let me tell you about her.......No really she is actually a good pilot and excellent friend.

XtremeF150

 

Everyone loves a pretty girl pilot, but to be a homely girl pilot is as ruff as it gets. No one want them, so if you see them on the ramp then they have most likely earned it.

SKyHigh