I’ve never been part of pilot recruitment, but presumably potential applicants are both interviewed by pilot recruiters, and also simulator tested by pilot recruiters. There are also psych tests.
An interesting question is whether these assessments tend to favour males, or particular personality types that are more predominant in males, such as a Type A personality (more aggressive and competitive).
In my airline, a certain level of assertion was certainly a pre-requisite for command upgrades, so was probably also assessed during initial interviews. A certain level of assertion is certainly a desirable trait, but only when balanced with other teamwork and leadership skills. A Type A personality often doesn’t make the best pilot in a multi-pilot cockpit, particularly when the pilot may be lacking in other desirable skills.
A classic example is a famous QF pilot who suffered a serious incident in an A380 and authored a book. He was not well regarded by his peers, even before he wrote the book about how good he was.
In my experience, pilots who lack the required behavioural skills and try to re-invent themselves to stay in the job, often don’t do it well, and can fall apart if the sh1t ever really hits the fan. I can list one female and several males whom I have worked with who fell into that category. Some, however, do train themselves well given the time and the right mentoring and advice.
But, it’s not all about recruitment. The big question is, are there females out there, who would like to be pilots, and would make excellent pilots, that are put off by many reasons such as:
- peer pressure (the whole STEM for females being pushed at school and university is part of this)
- perceived culture (if I become a pilot will I be continuously having to prove myself due to my gender? Or could I be bothered trying to make it in a male dominated profession?)
- family friendliness (many females tend to regard themselves more as primary carers should they wish to have children - this doesn’t always have to be a problem, but it can form part of the decision making process to choose to embark on such a profession)
- an assumption that it is a “man’s game”, only fit for females who identify as “tom-boys” (I know an excellent female pilot who also doesn’t mind getting her hands greasy rebuilding old cars - but you don’t need a half-built E-Type in your garage to be an excellent pilot)
If obstacles such as the above can be minimised, which takes time, the right attitudes by industry, the right advice from career counsellors, the right attitudes by families and society, then maybe more than 5% of females would seek out a career as a pilot.
If all the above is addressed, and still less than 50% of commercial pilot applicants are females, then we could deduce that there is an underlying gender preference in our profession, in the same way that more females than males apply for ballet school, hairdressing school, or nursing.
Until the obstacles are removed, we will never know for sure.
I believe we should continue to strive to remove the obstacles, but gender-over-merit to achieve quotas is not the way to go, and I believe most female pilots agree with that sentiment. So long as the merit is fairly assessed, of course,