Women Pilots, still dont get a fair shake

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I read an article today about women pilots, frankly Em amazed at how cave man like many people are about a woman at the controls.
I remember a few years back the "entire" (QF) crew were female , never felt for one minute my safety was in jeopardy.
I'm for more girl power on the flight deck.

British Airways female pilot on sexism: ‘He refused to fly with me’ | Women’s Day 2016
The article doesn't actually offer any explanation as to why the numbers of women are so low.

From my experience aviation is an industry that has few specific barriers to women. In the RAAF we were training women pilots as far back as 1978. (Though that's not what Google is telling me). On top of this the RAAF is about to or has just graduated it's first fighter pilot.

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From what I have seen there are no hurdles in front of the female pilots...other than the same ones facing the blokes. They've been around in the industry for so long that we take no notice (the first of them have retired).

For whatever reason, it isn't as popular a career with the girls as it is with the blokes, but I do hope that we aren't going to see calls for some selective lowering of the bar.
 
I used to see a female pilot and female first officer quite regularly on the 767s SYD-BNE and vice versa. Obviously the 767s are gone but I have heard a female on the 737s. Think there is at least one female pilot on the Dash 8s.

Makes no difference to me the gender of the pilot. Why write these types of articles on gender equality when that isn't the reason?
 
For whatever reason, it isn't as popular a career with the girls as it is with the blokes, but I do hope that we aren't going to see calls for some selective lowering of the bar.

Selective lowering would be wrong. Pilots should be pilots.

In my (very) limited experience, the female instructors I had were superior to their male counterparts. But that's just my experience and nobody else's.
 
Selective lowering would be wrong. Pilots should be pilots.

In my (very) limited experience, the female instructors I had were superior to their male counterparts. But that's just my experience and nobody else's.

I think that is pretty much true in most industries. The two best engineers I know are women (and paid like it). Same goes with doctors, lawyers, educators, etc. It is only when the unions or politicians or trash reporters what to give themselves a reason to grandstand it comes up. Why let the facts get in the way of a good story.

I have never seen a job a woman can't do but I have seen a lot that most chose not to do, or they have other priorities which they regard as a more important (like their kids). A friend of ours turned down a head of surgery (think that is what it was called) so she could help ensure her daughter could get in to medicine.
 
If the employer had acknowledged that the workload of the role was unrealistic, their preferred candidate male or female would have been able to take the job without sacrificing the potential future of their child.
 
What makes it difficult (in any industry) is the choice of language. When pilots are referred to collectively as 'the men in the flight deck', or references to 'policemen' or 'firemen'.

At least paramedics have managed to get rid of the gender specific language.
 
What makes it difficult (in any industry) is the choice of language. When pilots are referred to collectively as 'the men in the flight deck', or references to 'policemen' or 'firemen'.

At least paramedics have managed to get rid of the gender specific language.

I thought pilots were usually and commonly referred to as "pilot". It is rare to refer to them as "airmen". I've never heard "men in the flight deck". Even "air hostess" is not used any more - "cabin crew"

Doctors are a gender neutral term as well but the patients qualify it usually with a gender - "female doctor".

A female doctor friend laments that patients think she is a nurse (gender neutral but people refer to male nurses not as nurse but male nurse). It tends to be the pensioners from another era.

Its nothing more than than some patients preferring a female doctor. Granted they feel more comfortable with female doctor - no problem there, but a male passenger prefers a male pilot is wrong?. I'd say to passenger choose another flight and get off quick before they close the doors.

my female gyno doc friend also laments being a female doctor because her experience is that invariably she gets sent the "fruit loops", while her male gyno colleagues get the mentally stable patients.
 
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Would they have to rename the coughpit? What about joysticks?
 
Hmmm, i guess we better have a big rewrite of the english language till everyone feels comfortable...
 
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Hmmm, i guess we better have a big rewrite of the english language till everyone feels comfortable...
And every other language while you are at it.

Would you name your daughter cough? And if she then moves to an English speaking country and marries Mr Star?
 
I can remember Reg Ansett's case against women pilots and when I looked up Wikipedia I was astounded at how recent it really was.

"His views on women in aviation were widely viewed as sexist. He once described stewardesses over 30 as old boilers and claimed that women were unsuitable to be pilots because of their menstrual cycles. In 1978, Deborah Wardley took the company to the Victorian Equal Opportunity Board for discrimination. Wardley was a charter pilot who claimed that she was better qualified to be hired than other male pilots that had been hired. Ansett claimed that they hadn't discriminated against her because she was a woman but because she had the potential to fall pregnant. On 29 June 1979, the Equal Opportunity Board ruled in favour of Wardley and directed that Ansett Airlines should recruit her at the next intake. Ansett delayed its training intake and appealed to the Supreme Court of Victoria but the appeal was dismissed. Ansett appealed the Supreme Court decision to the High Court of Australia in October 1979, but employed Wardley pending the outcome of the case. The High Court dismissed Ansett's appeal in March 1980." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reg_Ansett
At least we have moved on from there somewhat.
 
Similar views on women were expressed by the Heads of Dog Squad and Mounted Horses back in 1978 when I was in the Police.

I dont actually mind the use of the word 'man' eg as in manpower. I've never considered that it excluded women. And by accepting its usage thus avoids the jokey 'coughpit' comments. ;) and the need to change the language.
 
What makes it difficult (in any industry) is the choice of language. When pilots are referred to collectively as 'the men in the flight deck', or references to 'policemen' or 'firemen'.

At least paramedics have managed to get rid of the gender specific language.

I always thought it was paramenics :D :D
 
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