Why aren't more women airline pilots?

It's 2011. I would have hoped by now that people would understand that a penis is not a requirement to be a pilot.
 
Here are some numbers, FWIW, might be of no value at all, you decide.

First look at FAA Pilot Data, and run the percentages. Here is what my spreadsheet showed:

Percentage of FAA certificated pilots that are female by category:

All pilots: 6%
Student: 12%
Recreational: 6%
Sport: 3%
Private: 7%
commercial: 7%
ATP: 4%

So, what does this tell us? Let's add one more:

ALPA members: 5%

There are a total of 53,000 members of ALPA.
There are 5,636 female pilots with ATPs.
There are 8,289 female pilots with commercial certificates.

Unknown are if the commercial certificates might have ATPs for multi engine. It is clear that ALPA has 2,650 female pilots according to the CNN article stats. Of course, there are many airlines that are not part of ALPA, so the total numbers of female airline pilots is actually higher. There are a total of about 79,000 airline pilots in the U.S. Assuming the 5% holds (which is most likely), that means we have almost 4,000 female pilots in the airline industry, and about 75,000 males. Now compare:

There are about 139,000 male ATPs.
There are 5,636 female ATPs.

There are about 125,738 males with commercial pilot certificates.
There are about 8,289 females with commercial pilot certificates.

Is it safe to assume that most airline pilots hold an ATP? If not, would that percentage be different by gender? I do not know. If we assume for simplicity that they all have ATPs, then it appears that roughly half of all male ATPs are employed by airlines and roughly 70% of female pilots are. What is the ratio for corporate? What percentage of those male ATPs are corporate pilots vs. female? If there is a larger disparity there, that might explain the difference. I have no idea.

It appears that more men seem to want to fly airplanes for fun based on the rec certificates. The percentages for captain's is lower, but as the system is entirely seniority based, in my experience that is more due to women choosing seniority over seat position (QOL vs. pay/prestige). Nothing wrong with that, and it makes sense.

The larger issue is that not that many women seem to want to be pilots. Typical for my wife when she tells someone I'm a pilot, the men say "I always wanted to do that", the women make remarks about "aren't you worried about him", or other remarks that are not about how they would like to do it. There are a lot of factors into what people choose to do, and I am not sure that we will be able to change that.
 
WacoFan said:
It's funny when you say penis. That made me laugh.
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It was meant to be a lighthearted message. I'm glad it wasn't taken too seriously. :)

The statement is true though. One thing that really burns me is all those fine women ferry pilots who came home from the war (WWII) and were completely shut out of airline jobs. Certainly not all of them would have wanted to go airline, of course, but I bet some of them would.
 
Ayork62493 said:
I'd have to partially agree with him... Granted I'm only 16 and obviously there are exceptions. (You) But riding with girls my age, and even their parents has me grabbing the Oh handle for most of the ride.
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My driving scares my girlfriend way more than hers scares me. ;)
 
Bad statistics. There's a big generational gap in the airline business between the regionals and the majors. I've heard Mom talk about how the male FAs were automatically presumed senior to female FAs because of gender as recently as the 70's. "Women just weren't pilots back then," she tells me. Now, take the generation her generation brought into the world- different paradigm. But hiring trends haven't caught up with the change in society. Ergo, that's why I hear a great many female voices using regional callsigns and very few using majors callsigns.

Still happens, though. Had an all female MD-80 crew fly me home not too long back. This just another case of a major media outlet not realizing the whole of the situation and asking a leading question hinting at some sort of discriminatory act in the airline business.
 
If it matters any, I'm on with Center a lot when I'm in the field, for 4-6 hours at a stretch - sometimes twice a day (8-12 hours with center)
You'd be surprised how many women I hear with 121 carriers in a day. While statistics are definitely hard numbers, my two cents is that there are more women pilots than you might think.
 
Compared to what? 38 years ago there weren't any. Then Frontier hired Emily Warner, and the number of female pilots has been growing ever since.
 
Firebird2XC said:
Bad statistics. There's a big generational gap in the airline business between the regionals and the majors. I've heard Mom talk about how the male FAs were automatically presumed senior to female FAs because of gender as recently as the 70's. "Women just weren't pilots back then," she tells me. Now, take the generation her generation brought into the world- different paradigm. But hiring trends haven't caught up with the change in society. Ergo, that's why I hear a great many female voices using regional callsigns and very few using majors callsigns.

Still happens, though. Had an all female MD-80 crew fly me home not too long back. This just another case of a major media outlet not realizing the whole of the situation and asking a leading question hinting at some sort of discriminatory act in the airline business.
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How did you get stuck in a small room with two women without them tossing your ass out?
 
Firebird2XC said:
Bad statistics. There's a big generational gap in the airline business between the regionals and the majors. I've heard Mom talk about how the male FAs were automatically presumed senior to female FAs because of gender as recently as the 70's. "Women just weren't pilots back then," she tells me. Now, take the generation her generation brought into the world- different paradigm. But hiring trends haven't caught up with the change in society. Ergo, that's why I hear a great many female voices using regional callsigns and very few using majors callsigns.

Still happens, though. Had an all female MD-80 crew fly me home not too long back. This just another case of a major media outlet not realizing the whole of the situation and asking a leading question hinting at some sort of discriminatory act in the airline business.
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But even here at JC there's some truth. One of the JC sub-websites is JetGirls.net, owned by Kristie, and billed as "....a website that would be of use to other spouses and families in times of need. We are open for current aviation or military spouses, future spouses, girlfriends, parents and even friends....."

Now even though it says "spouses", its still titled "jetgirls"; not that there's anything wrong with that, but it is indicitive of a normally accepted mindset of female spouses to male pilots. As there is no "jetguys.net" for the opposite situation, that might relate to the still-current public perception of gender percentages in the airlines.

Its nothing thats right or wrong, just seems like something that is.
 
A bit 'o trivia: [Without googling] Where did the term "cockpit" originate and why is it called that? (Yes, I do know the answer.)
 
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