Halon1211

As a person who self-identifies as Newmale (it’s a new gender) it kinda makes me wonder if companies are hiring the most qualified people or just hiring people because they feel sorry for a certain group.

SkylaneRG

I think women with equal motivation and work ethic make equal pilots. I unfortunately know too many women that pilots just to say they're pilots and then scream disadvantaged from the rooftops if they're not hired, when they're not the best person for the job.

I think we can all agree that the best pilots should be flying without regard to race or gender. To get the best available candidates we need more candidates.. Start young by going to elementary and middle schools. Do high school career days. Introduce women to successful women in this career and others, but don't blindly make a 50% metric. 50% of aspiring pilots are not female and that is okay. I bet 50% of aspiring cosmetologist are not men and that's fine too. Help those that want in this career and are willing and able to make the sacririfces required. That goes for everyone, not just women and minorities. I will say, women have a much larger opportunity for scholarships and financial assistance, so I don't see that as the issue to entry compared to male counterparts.

These are my thoughts based on my career and experience in aviation. I'm glad I have this career and I'm actually really glad I know I earned this job and my gender didn't play a factor in checking some box.

Don't lower the standards. Keep the best people up front. Period.

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hummingbear

Not sure exactly how they’re defining “people of color”, but 40% of our country’s population is non-white. Around 50% are women. It shouldn’t be too hard to fill half a class with other than white dudes without sacrificing standards.

HuggyU2

Glad to know you have the solution that's not too hard! Care to share it with the rest of us?

Andy Dufresne

The big issue will be United allowing this “goal” to become a quota - like much of the rest of the corporate world is beginning to lean towards for the sake of “diversity.”

When you hire an individual with multiple check ride busts and half the flight time over a guy with a spotless record and a wealth of experience, you’ve created a problem. That’s inevitably what will happen, and United will not be a better airline for it.

You are doing a disservice to the entire industry by parroting the nonsense about “qualifications.” Hiring candidates who meet minimum standards should never be the goal, and certainly not just because of the demographic they were born into.

Are you the most qualified candidate for the job?

That should be the only metric being used. Anyone arguing for something else is begging for disaster. This is not an industry that can afford to sacrifice quality for the sake of being woke and making sure everyone knows how un-racist/sexist/phobic we are.

Are you the most qualified candidate for the job?

That’s it.

MacrossJet

Scratches head. When was that? Didn't United get sued back in the day by black WWII aviators, in order to finally integrate the cockpit? Hmmm.

hummingbear

Just to be clear, you’re saying if less than 50% of a pilot training program are white males, it necessarily means selection standards have been lowered?

flyguy23

This is extreme oversimplification. The pilot field is mostly white male, and it's not due to racism. Women dominate certain fields, and minorities are more prevalent in certain fields. Im all for encouraging minorities and women to fly if they so choose, but hiring based on societal demographics instead of applicant pool demographics is just wrong.

To achieve the stated goal of 50%, they'll have to go to extremes to gather that much interest to level the demographic playing field. If not, this hiring practice is dangerous. If women make up 5% of applicants, but 50% of new hires, youre just taking anyone that comes along qualifications be damned.

Women I know are completely against this practice for reasons stated above. They have reached the top of their career through hard work and earned every bit of it. They have no desire to be put in a group of people with special privileges where people question their achievements.

Varsity

Not sure what decade you're living in.

Prior to covid, regional airlines couldn't hardly find pilots of any kind, at all. The ones they did find had a history of training failures and lead to deviations, incidents, accidents; Commutair, Envoy, Atlas - crashing a wide body. Imagine if that were a United 767 full of hundreds of innocent people.

Holding the standard during huge turn over is tough enough. Accomplishing some nazi-style genetic social engineering program on top of that is just not in the cards, regardless of how good it sounds on paper.

If you truly value safety over everything else, you'll take the most qualified candidates no matter what they look like or have between their legs.

Air Stang 7

I am a gray tree frog. It allows me to select the color and gender currently the most in demand by the racist woke people.