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Old 24th March 2003 | 07:27
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Genghis the Engineer
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Okay I'm male, and I work in another bit of the aircraft industry, not the airlines. S, if you'll accept my apology for that...

I've seen occasional bias amongst the "old and bold" of my own sex towards women pilots, but it's pretty rare and I think you'll only get that from people passed over for real authority anyway so it's unlikely to do more than irritrate you occasionally. Women pilots are becoming more and more common, and I don't think you'll find that you stand out particularly. You'll certainly find few aviation professionals who regard it other than as a social and minor logisistic issue (such as not booking a twin room on landaway to save the company money). Occasionally I and others are guilty of the odd double-take because we weren't expecting to see a woman in the cockpit, but that's just - well mild surprise at not seeing what we expected.

What I cannot work out is why the proportion of women in aeronautical engineering is so tiny by proportion. It's nothing to do with physical strength - there is not that much required (maybe the perception of). I think in Engineering there is more bias against women, and that will probably linger for a while until more enter the profession and prove to the chauvanist diehards that there is no difference in ability. But, that wasn't what you asked, so I'll belt up now.

G
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