The long-held stereotypes that portray women as inferior in the cockpit have for long crippled their dreams to become pilots. The research paper will address the research problem which gives statistical facts about women proportion. The research paper will also focus on some of the reasons why there is a shortage of women pilots in the American airline industry despite the current pilot shortage. The section further focuses on challenges and efforts made in recruiting female pilots. The second part compares different academic literature on gender imbalance in aviation. Historical and current progress in reducing gender imbalance also features in the essay.
Research problem
In the United States, only 6.5% of certified pilots are women, a proportion that has not changed in the last ten years. The long-held stereotype that women are not fit to be in the cockpit has denied women the opportunity to prove they can be as good pilots as their male counterparts (Callahan, 2016). Despite many of the women having satisfied all the requirements, only 3% of the women are licensed pilots. In states like Pennsylvania and New Jersey, the numbers of women pilots are far below that of the national average. The stereotype is such deeply entrenched in that, the five airlines operating in the two states do not disclose the number of women pilots they employ. In fact, Delta airline regional manager in Philadelphia disclosed in an interview with the Guardian Newspaper that they risk losing their customers to competitors once they disclose the number of women pilots they employ (Choat, 2017).
The commercial and government agencies have shown little efforts to attract and engage women pilots in the last few years. The under-representation has made men to dominate airline sector from the very beginning. Although some women cite that the work is so demanding and high risking, a good majority are passionate about flying and are ready to do their best. The problem of pilot shortage in American airlines and other international airliners would not have been a big risk as it is now if the industry embraced gender equality in the past (Weller, 2007).
Existing academic and practitioner literature in support of the research problem
The current women shortage can be linked with most airlines employing pilots from the military which has a shortage of pilots too. With many soldiers being men, there was little chance of women qualifying as military pilots (Germain et al, 2012). The existing labor laws in aviation discourage women from pursuing such a demanding career. The dream of every woman to have and give enough time for their families have acted as stumbling blocks for girls and young women to pursue piloting as a career. The challenge to balance family life and aviation careers is still a challenge to many women today.
In their research of women pilot shortage in the US, Goyer, (2012), found out that isolation of women by their male colleagues in the workplaces jeopardize women efforts to progress in aviation. Also, the training environments are majorly male suited which make many women uncomfortable to train in an environment not well-matched with their biological needs. In their recommendations of how to encourage more women in aviation, Zheng, (2016), proposed that there is a need for non-profit organizations and aviation groups to develop and implement programs to aid young women and girls to win scholarships to join aviation schools. For women to be fully absorbed, passengers should be made to understand that women can handle any challenge in piloting like their male counterparts. The above-mentioned challenges are common in both regional and international airliners in the US.
The historical and current discovery of women pilot shortage
In the beginning, women aviators were frustrated by regulations and prejudice of incapability to fly. Despite being looked down upon for a long time, women have portrayed relentless efforts to secure their space of freedom in the air. Early female pilots like Ruth law, Blanche Scott and others set the pace despite resistance and discrimination. Since 1970, over 3000 pilots are employed in every decade but the ratio represented 4.9% of the women in the United States. In fact, there were less than 150 female pilots between the years 1965 to 1985 (Hynes, and Puckett, 2011). United States airlines still lag behind in embracing gender balance in aviation compared to other airlines like Emirates and Qatar airlines. Women percentage in both Qatar and Emirates airlines was over 15% in the year 2017. In the United States, the active ratio of women pilots rose slightly from 5% to 7% between the years 2010 and 2013. In the year 2014, the number of women pilots in commercial airliners decreased from 8000 to 6000 in the US alone (Puckett and Hynes, 2011). However, there is notable progress with some airliners in the year 2015 to the year 2017. Both Easy jet and Qantas airlines embarked on setting target policies by reducing gender imbalance in the company by the year 2021. Alaska airlines made history when two African American women became the first to crew a passenger plane (Choat, 2017).
Conclusion
The shortage of pilots in the American airline industry is partly caused by the conservative nature that men are best suited to be in the cockpit than women. With the forecast of a pilot shortage in the coming decades, the American airline industry still shows little effort to diversify gender inclusion. Although there are a few American airlines walking away from the long odd held view by recruiting women pilots, more needs to be done to raise the current ration from 7% to more than 20% in the next few years. If other airlines follow the steps of both Easy jet and Qantas airliners, the dreams of any young girls and women in the United States to become pilots will be a reality in the coming years.
References
Callahan, J. L. (2016). Women in a" combat, masculine-warrior" culture: The performance of emotion work. Journal of Behavioral and Applied Management, 1(2), 790.
Choat, M (2017), Whyairlines need more female pilots to take to the skies. The Guardian. Retrieved November 6 2018, from: https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2017/mar/08/why-airlines-need-more-female-pilots-to-take-to-the-skies
Weller, S. A. (2007). Discrimination, labour markets and the labour market prospects of older workers: what can a legal case teach us?. Work, employment and society, 21(3), 417-437.
Germain, M. L., Herzog, M. J. R., " Hamilton, P. R. (2012). Women employed in male-dominated industries: lessons learned from female aircraft pilots, pilots-in-training and mixed-gender flight instructors. Human Resource Development International, 15(4), 435-453.
Goyer, M. (2012). Five decades of women pilots in the United States. How did we do.
Zheng, J. (2016). Female Pilots: Career Experiences and Recruitment Discourses (Doctoral dissertation, Auckland University of Technology).
Hynes, G. E., " Puckett, M. (2011). Feminine leadership in commercial aviation: Success stories of women pilots and captains. Journal of Aviation Management and Education, 1, 1.
Puckett, M., " Hynes, G. E. (2011). Feminine leadership in commercial aviation: Success stories of women pilots and captains. In Academic and Business Research Institute International Conference. Nashville, TN.
