Hello, I am a female that would like to become a pilot. What type of discrimination are the most often seen on the job? Religiously, biased and racial.
Do these things matter when you work with flight companies?
Does it affect the chance of getting a job as a female pilot?
M’ram,
The airlines are some of the largest publicly held companies in the US. If any of them were practicing any type of discrimination there would be huge repercussions. I’ve been an airline pilot for 14 years and I personally have flown with pilots of every race, religion, nationality and sexual orientation and have never seen an ounce of discrimination or bias on a corporate level. The airlines need and hire professional experienced pilots. It’s that simple.
That said pilots and passengers also come in all shapes, sizes, colors and levels of intelligence and with that many if not all people come with some bias whether it be positive or negative. What I’m saying is if you do well in training, conduct yourself as a professional and have a clean record you have just as good a chance of getting hired as anyone else. That does not however mean that you’ll never encounter any negativity, bias or plain old stupidity on the job. There are some ignorant people who will judge you and will not think you’re a good pilot simply because of any of the above. There are also passengers who think nothing of looking in the cockpit and making some stupid foolish remark. You see if I’m a lousy pilot I’m just a lousy pilot but if you’re a lousy pilot, you’re a lousy chick pilot. Is that right? Of course not but unfortunately that is sometimes the reality and I believe situations like that can and are encountered in many industries, particularly those that in the past were dominated by a specific gender, race, ethnicity etc. The good news is this is not the norm and doesn’t happen daily. Personally I believe the single best tactic in these situations is proving the individual wrong and clearly demonstrating that you do if fact belong on the flight deck with your skills and attitude.
If you still have questions I’d encourage you to visit https://www.wai.org/ (Women in Aviation).
Adam
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Thank you very much for answering my question.
I wanted to know if I had a serious chance in succeeding study for being a pilot.
Thank you for your time.
-M’ram Aboluhoom