Why aren't more women airline pilots?

Institutional discrimination. Exact same reason there aren't many women math and science professors. Or maybe women are genetically less predisposed to contracting shiny jet syndrome. Nah probably the first reason.
 
ClimbnSink said:
Institutional discrimination. Exact same reason there aren't many women math and science professors. Or maybe women are genetically less predisposed to contracting shiny jet syndrome. Nah probably the first reason.
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Interesting point, though slightly in error. In the Biological sciences, the numbers of women have been climbing steadily for some time, and may have actually reached parity. In the more mathematical sciences like physics and engineering, women participants are lacking.
 
Both of my instructors have been women and also now fly for the airlines.

My PP CFI was a FO for Colgan, and is now a Captain flying a SAAB like Teller fly's. My CFII, was just hired a few weeks ago by Air Wisconsin and will soon be flying a CRJ-200.
 
catmandu said:
Past tense noteworthy. :(
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I took an early retirement. However I still have several friends flying the line that are doing quite well.

I don't buy into the line it's a "dead end deal" especially from those who never did it. Those comments are simply "sour grapes".
 
Rotor&Wing said:
I took an early retirement. However I still have several friends flying the line that are doing quite well.

I don't buy into the line it's a "dead end deal" especially from those who never did it. Those comments are simply "sour grapes".
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There is a strong argument against both 'dead end deal' and 'lucrative'. You and your contemporaries likely had the benefit of impeccably lucky timing.

According to my contemporaries, there is more a sense of struggle than success. Lots of talk about secondary jobs to achieve the financial success expected when they started the journey fifteen to twenty years ago.

But this is certainly not a situation limited to this particular career choice.
 
catmandu said:
there is more a sense of struggle than success. Lots of talk about secondary jobs to achieve the financial success expected when they started the journey fifteen to twenty years ago.
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That sounds like an awful lot of other jobs in the real world. You start out with little pay and a less than stellar position and claw your way up. Sometimes your industry bears out promotion and financial stability, sometimes it doesn't. People act like the airline industry is the only place where this occurs.

As for women being airline pilots, I don't really see any barriers. They can do so if they choose. Most choose not to.
 
Jack Spectre said:
That sounds like an awful lot of other jobs in the real world. You start out with little pay and a less than stellar position and claw your way up. Sometimes your industry bears out promotion and financial stability, sometimes it doesn't. People act like the airline industry is the only place where this occurs.

As for women being airline pilots, I don't really see any barriers. They can do so if they choose. Most choose not to.
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I wonder. I was told that women don't/can't fly and really believed it. Then I got old and fat and too darned headstrong to care. But also too old to work for an airline.
 
Jack Spectre said:
That sounds like an awful lot of other jobs in the real world. You start out with little pay and a less than stellar position and claw your way up. Sometimes your industry bears out promotion and financial stability, sometimes it doesn't. People act like the airline industry is the only place where this occurs.
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+1.

Jack Spectre said:
for women being airline pilots, I don't really see any barriers. They can do so if they choose. Most choose not to.
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+2. There were definitely barriers in the past but not so much so any more.
 
There used to be some significant barriers for women, the memory of which is still exploited shamelessly by feminists. I remember how I worked at Sun Microsystems in 1990s and 90% of middle management cadre were women, but then 70% of VPs were men - the dinasaurs that were not displaced yet. Somehow the first half of this equation never was a problem for androphobes.
 
Seems to me the barriers that exist anymore are with individuals, not with the system. And there are fewer and fewer individuals that think women can't fly, so those are rapidly decreasing.

Come to think of it, I see more female pilots (including airlines) than I see non-white pilots.
 
Rotor&Wing said:
I took an early retirement. However I still have several friends flying the line that are doing quite well.

I don't buy into the line it's a "dead end deal" especially from those who never did it. Those comments are simply "sour grapes".
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Dead end = left seat and that's the end of the road.

You will never see the corporate offices. with your desk and a CEO sign on the door.
 
In an age of declining pilot populations I would think the reasons behind why half the population chooses not to participate would be of interest. It could simply be part of our sexual dimorphic nature, indeed that wouldn't surprise me. It is however possible that aspects of the culture or training environment are to blame. The latter are easily fixed, and the prospect of doubling the number of pilots entering activity would encourage most.
 
steingar said:
Interesting point, though slightly in error. In the Biological sciences, the numbers of women have been climbing steadily for some time, and may have actually reached parity. In the more mathematical sciences like physics and engineering, women participants are lacking.
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In my department (Astronomy) the graduate students and postdocs are roughly at parity. The faculty are mostly men, though the number have been changing. Both my undergraduate and graduate advisors have been women, for what that's worth.
 
chucky said:
In my department (Astronomy) the graduate students and postdocs are roughly at parity. The faculty are mostly men, though the number have been changing. Both my undergraduate and graduate advisors have been women, for what that's worth.
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A quick perusal of my own school's Astronomy department reveals four women in a department of 21 faculty.
 
It's a little bit higher here (four out of fifteen or so - it depends on who you count from Physics) but that sounds pretty typical. Also, 21 faculty in an Astronomy department? Wow. The list of programs that big is fairly short. Anyway, the field as a whole is not near parity yet, but it's been steadily moving in that direction. Geosciences, too, are moving in that direction. Physics as a whole is still much more dominated by men, but even there things are changing.
 
steingar said:
A quick perusal of my own school's Astronomy department reveals four women in a department of 21 faculty.
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Check English, Communications, Ethnic Studies.
 
steingar said:
A quick perusal of my own school's Astronomy department reveals four women in a department of 21 faculty.
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We have about 30 pilots and I am the only female so I think the ratio is even smaller in areas of aviation other than the airlines.
 
Everskyward said:
+1.

+2. There were definitely barriers in the past but not so much so any more.
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My check instructor (141 school) was a woman, and base chief instructor at the time. One of the best pilots I've flown with.

Flies in a skirt and high heels most days.

Didn't seem to be that taboo in the 60's, shouldn't be now either.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX7PcbKn6Tk
 
Out of the 25 people in my instrument class, two are female, and only one of them is pro-pilot. (the other is ATC.) Why is that?
 
chucky said:
It's a little bit higher here (four out of fifteen or so - it depends on who you count from Physics) but that sounds pretty typical. Also, 21 faculty in an Astronomy department? Wow. The list of programs that big is fairly short. Anyway, the field as a whole is not near parity yet, but it's been steadily moving in that direction. Geosciences, too, are moving in that direction. Physics as a whole is still much more dominated by men, but even there things are changing.
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Maybe this is off-topic now, but I've noticed that female professors tend to be bitchy. And I'm female, so I'm not sexist here. I've noticed many female science professors are just unpleasant *******. Did they work so hard to get where they are that they turned into super *****?

I forgot to mention the unpleasant female DPE I had for my checkride. After talking with others at the airport, this individual is known to be harder on females. My checkride was a miserable experience, and I never want to see that woman again. I don't understand why some women have to be so bitchy to other women.
 
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bluee said:
Maybe this is off-topic now, but I've noticed that female professors tend to be bitchy. And I'm female, so I'm not sexist here. I've noticed many female science professors are just unpleasant *******. Did they work so hard to get where they are that they turned into super *****?
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Well, that hasn't been my experience - the 'bitchiest' professors I've ever known have been men. As for the women professors I know, some of them are very nice people, some of them are decidedly not. Just like the men.

Getting back to the subject of pilots, I've flown with a total of six instructors, one of whom was a woman. She was in many respects the best instructor of the bunch, but as she was also one of the more experienced, I don't think that says anything about gender.
 
bluee said:
Maybe this is off-topic now, but I've noticed that female professors tend to be bitchy. And I'm female, so I'm not sexist here. I've noticed many female science professors are just unpleasant *******. Did they work so hard to get where they are that they turned into super *****?

I forgot to mention the unpleasant female DPE I had for my checkride. After talking with others at the airport, this individual is known to be harder on females. My checkride was a miserable experience, and I never want to see that woman again. I don't understand why some women have to be so bitchy to other women.
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You want bitchy, try talking to me during finals week. Actually, try talking to me just about any time.

This might play into another aspect of our sexually dimorphic nature. If men exhibit strong will they're often labeled things like "driven" or motivated. Women are often labeled bitchy for the same reasons.
 
steingar said:
You want bitchy, try talking to me during finals week. Actually, try talking to me just about any time.

This might play into another aspect of our sexually dimorphic nature. If men exhibit strong will they're often labeled things like "driven" or motivated. Women are often labeled bitchy for the same reasons.
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No, there's a way to be that without being bitchy or an a-hole. I also know plenty of both who aren't driven or motivated.
 
bluee said:
I don't understand why some women have to be so bitchy to other women.
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'Cuz they're just *******? :D
Let's face it, regardless of gender, some folks are just too impressed with themselves, and have striven for positions of authority of prestige mostly to compensate for their own lack of self-esteem. They thrive on making others squirm whenever they can get away with it.
 
Bull****. It was a dead-end deal back then too.
Rotor&Wing said:
I took an early retirement. However I still have several friends flying the line that are doing quite well.

I don't buy into the line it's a "dead end deal" especially from those who never did it. Those comments are simply "sour grapes".
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Were those 8-hour/days where you could play golf after work, have dinner with the family and sleep in your own bed?

Rotor&Wing said:
Definition: $180K for 10 days/month average. :thumbsup:
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wabower said:
Were those 8-hour/days where you could play golf after work, have dinner with the family and sleep in your own bed?
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Doubtful, but it's not uncommon for me to have 10 days a month that I can't do any of those (last year I had 50% travel for work), and I have what's supposed to be a 7-4 M-F job at my home base. I'm working a lot more than 10 days a month, and getting paid much, much less.
 
wabower said:
Were those 8-hour/days where you could play golf after work, have dinner with the family and sleep in your own bed?
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I bet on his WEEK days off he could sit in the back of his kids classroom MULTIPLE times a month without having to ask the lord of the cubicles for permission. To have your kid look back over their shoulder and see dad sitting back there.....how huge is that. And if you can't figure out the answer then you don't really know anything about value.
 
Yeah, right. The only people who can take time off to go to their kids school are airline pilots. So noted.

Art VanDelay said:
I bet on his WEEK days off he could sit in the back of his kids classroom MULTIPLE times a month without having to ask the lord of the cubicles for permission. To have your kid look back over their shoulder and see dad sitting back there.....how huge is that. And if you can't figure out the answer then you don't really know anything about value.
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