Maybe I see a potential for problems, whereas I´am the problem.
Maybe I just had bad luck in flying with female copilots who were not properly qualified.
I don´t think so.
The question is :
Is there any relationship between flightcrew performance and gender-constellation ?
As captain I try to achieve best results out of the crew´s cooperation I find myself working together with and which I´am leading as a commander. How can I fulfill this task without being aware of Human Factors in general and specifically in regard to gender ?
No matter how hard we try to turn down the facts – in the end we must accept that we´re human beings and sometimes beings with differences in the way we function, behave, react, communicate and so on. Quality and magnitude of differences among male pilots I see is by far smaller than between male and female pilots. I´am not ranking those differences, nor do I say it´s an impossible thing to manage.
The important point is knowing the differences, the traps, the potential of arising problems causing degradation of team performance.
Experience showed me that things work out better, if I sharpen my awareness related to the fact that my copilot is female before going to briefing.
Yes right, we aquired our licences. Yes right, we passed our entry procedures at an airline. Still, apart from our knowledge and our skills that are asked for to sit in the right or left seat of an airliner there are important differences (as we all know) in perception, communication, reaction to imputs driven by patterns laid down in our early education, socialization and our instincts. We are not the same beings – and I find demanding exactly that is quite naive.
Flightcrew performance is dependend from the way two human beings cooperate.
Certainly : We are pilots, not a psychologists and doing things by intuition is good and often enough. Unfortunately not always. Awareness and anticipation is important.
Reading some of above posts confirms my thought of this issue being a taboo-issue.
RvB