I've been flying airplanes for nearly 17 years and teaching people how to fly for nine of those years. I like aviation, and I'm glad my dad introduced me to it because I'm not sure I would have found out about flying airplanes on my own. As a young woman, aviation was not one of the options being pitched at me during career day at my high school or college.
That was eons ago (I am very old, my kids tell me), and so when I set off to write a story about sexual stereotypes in aviation, I didn't believe that there was anything holding women back from being pilots — nothing had stopped me. I was shocked to find that despite "equal opportunity" and "affirmative action," the percentage of pilots who are women in the United States has remained basically unchanged since the Federal Aviation Administration started releasing such trivia sometime shortly after the end of World War II. Women make up approximately 6 percent of the total U.S. pilot population and about 2 percent of the professional (working) pilot population. The actual numbers of women pilots have increased and, in the past decade, decreased right along with the population of male pilots. The number of women who have entered the ranks of the working pilots (commercial rating, second-class medical certificate or higher) has increased nearly 500 percent over the years from 1980 to 1990 — yet that 6-percent total remains unchanged.
When I looked at the statistics, I sat down and took a deep breath. Something just didn't seem right. In my years as a pilot, I've coped with being too small to see out the front of some airplanes (bring a pillow, or adjust the seat or rudder pedals), developing enough strength in my legs to overcome asymmetrical thrust on a windmilling wing-mounted engine, and the need to wear glasses to correct my blurry distant vision. None of these physical limitations kept me from flying. Even pregnancy didn't ground me for any significant length of time.
Just the fact that I am female hasn't limited my job opportunities in aviation, either — although I've often been the first, or one of the only women at that time, to teach at a fixed-base operation (FBO) or fly Part 135 charters. Yes, the guys occasionally teased me, but I took it in fun and never balked at their somewhat ribald sense of humor (I've even learned to tell a raunchy joke or two). Only once or twice have I encountered a person who truly felt that I didn't belong in my position because I was a woman. My skills as a pilot and teacher have always spoken for themselves, and once past the initial surprise at seeing a woman behind the controls, both students and passengers generally relax and become repeat business.
My experience over the past two decades is that women are accepted within the aviation community based on their skills, knowledge, and easygoing personality — gender isn't much of an issue. But don't be fooled; the simple prevalence of males in the industry keeps aviation a "man's world." None of these facts explained the FAA numbers, though, so I hit the road and talked with other male and female professional aviators: flight instructors, chief pilots, designated examiners, FBO owners, and educators. After talking to more than 15 individuals, it's clear that, for the most part, it is not the pilots but rather the nonflying public who don't see women in the cockpit.
Most of the women I spoke with, with few exceptions, shared a similar lack of overt gender discrimination during their careers in aviation. "Everyone has respected my judgment but for one person, who didn't seem to like women in general," says Wally Funk, a flight instructor and designated examiner with more than 35 years of aviation experience. Funk, tall and slender, silver-haired, and almost always flashing a crooked smile, has been a National Transportation Safety Board accident investigator and even a Mercury space program astronaut candidate. "I never feel like I have to prove myself," she says. "My credentials speak for me. I have walked through every door that opened to me, however, and made sure that I was a positive-thinking person — that's something I feel blessed to have."
In Wichita, Kansas, a lot of people fly airplanes, which means you are more likely to find female pilots at the airport, flying, teaching, or on passenger-carrying Part 135 flights. Rilla Rogus is an instructor and owner of Aviation Training Specialists, Incorporated, an FBO on the field at Agusta Municipal Airport on the west side of Wichita. "Since I own the place and employ another female instructor, I generally find that if someone has a problem working with a female CFI, they may come in or call once, but they don't come back," she says. Rogus doesn't see gender discrimination as a big problem in aviation today. When she learned to fly at the Cessna Flying Club in Wichita in 1979, however, there wasn't even a ladies' room in the compound. "I was interested in a career at Cessna, and learning to fly would further that goal. Back then, it felt to me as if only fellas flew, so it took a pretty major shift in my consciousness to imagine myself at the controls of an airplane."
Most of the women interviewed for this story either lived near an airport, had a parent or relative who worked at an airport, or, like Rogus, became interested in flying to further an aviation-related career.
Nancy Cullen, an air traffic control specialist, learned to fly both because she wanted to and also because it would make her a better controller. Her father, a pilot, encouraged her every step of the way. As a student, she has flown with both male and female instructors. "I look to see that my teachers are good pilots," she says. "I don't think piloting is a gender-specified skill."
Jan Shakespeare was an airframe and powerplant mechanic with Eastern Airlines who decided to become a pilot later in life. She's now got more than 400 hours of teaching experience in eight months as a flight instructor at Cav-Air, Incorporated, a Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport FBO. South Florida is not like Wichita; in a group of 14 flight instructors, Shakespeare is one of only two female flight instructors. "I've found that some of the younger male flight instructors are very competitive, but that's not necessarily gender specific. I enjoy teaching, so maybe my attitude is a little different. I genuinely care about my students, and that comes through. I had one guy, a lawyer, walk in, look at me, take a step back, then say, 'Well, at least you're not wearing a tie.' After our first lesson, he relaxed and is now very comfortable with me as his instructor."
Funk may have never had to prove herself to a student, coworkers, or to a potential employer, but the majority of the women I spoke with shared experiences similar to those Shakespeare related. "Some of the students I've taught initially didn't believe I could do it [teach them to fly]," says Holly Brenneman, a full-time registered nurse and part-time CFI. "But once you demonstrate your knowledge and expertise, it all clicks — they are convinced and sometimes become your best students."
"In 13 years of teaching pilots, I've found that you either get 'what's she doing out here?' or 'isn't this great — I wish my wife could meet you, maybe she'd learn to fly,' " says Dr. Peggy Baty, associate dean of Parks College of St. Louis University and an experienced flight and ground instructor. Baty was inspired to found the annual Women in Aviation Conference after having to explain to her seatmate on an airline trip that as a flight instructor she taught pilots, not flight attendants.
My own experience trying to break into aviation wasn't having to prove that I could fly, but rather having to prove that I could teach. I can remember the chief pilot during one job interview saying over and over as he looked my relatively petite frame up and down, "But you have no teaching experience of any kind?" My response was a repeated, "No, but I think I will be a really good instructor." Two weeks later, I got the job (turns out that they had a 250-pound student who wanted to do his training in his personal IFR-equipped Cessna 152, so they needed a petite CFI), but that provided me with the experience I needed to get the next job, and the next.
In the college and university settings, complaints about gender discrimination tend to be more prevalent, even though the ratio of women to men is a little higher, with female populations often running more than 10 percent (not all go on to be pilots, however). Patty Leon, who put in two years as a flight instructor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's Daytona Beach, Florida, campus and now flies a corporate jet, says, "I still hear a lot of 'you don't look like a pilot.' In fact, though many guys start out with a sexist remark like that, they usually are just not thinking and quickly realize their mistake, back off, and seem decent after that." She remembered distinctly that although there were around 20 female flight instructors (out of 125 total), there were no female training managers, even though several of the female CFIs were qualified for the positions.
Jane Phillips, an assistant chief flight instructor and designated examiner at Lane Community College in Eugene, Oregon, senses as well that there is a glass ceiling of subtle discrimination within the academic flight-training arena. "I graduated at the top of my class, and part of the reward for doing so was that the college offered you a job," she says. "I didn't notice a double standard until I moved into charter pilot and management positions, where it seems much harder to get promoted. It becomes very subjective in academia. The aviation part of my job is better. For example, once I proved that I was a good examiner, I began to get a lot of repeat business and referrals."
Of all the places where women can teach in aviation, the academy- type schools tended to provide the most nurturing environments for women, even though they too struggle with discrimination. Some academies are bound by affirmative-action quotas and others are not, but in all cases, the chief pilots were quick to point out that they never had to hire an under-qualified instructor just to fill a quota. "It doesn't happen," says Bob Stickel, chief flight instructor at FlightSafety International's Vero Beach, Florida, academy. "I find that the female applicants for flight instructor jobs are all above our application standards. I give all the CFI check rides, and I generally find that the women work harder to be good CFIs. They seem to need to prove themselves to me. I'm straightforward with them and honest: If you've got what we need as a flight instructor, you are hired." Stickel does have a problem with women flight instructors, though. "If they turn out to be really good at what they do, they rarely stay with us long enough — the airlines grab them up."
Another reason why some women don't stay came to light during an interview with several female CFIs at the academy. It seems that a few of the foreign air carriers that contract with FlightSafety for training have made it very clear that their pilots should not be taught by female flight instructors. For that reason, certain lucrative contract programs that request experienced flight instructors are closed to women who teach at FlightSafety. A few of the CFIs interviewed didn't see this as discrimination at all but simply good business. "The customer is always right in that arena," says Emily Breeden, an assistant chief flight instructor. A few of the airlines that contract for training at FlightSafety will consider women CFIs in their program. Swissair hired Ione Maxwell into its chief flight instructor position, which she held until moving on to corporate flying. She was the first and, up to now, last female CFI to work in the program. Maxwell says she would have liked to hire a female CFI into the Swissair program when she ran it, but at that time, there were no female instructors who met Swissair's rigid experience criteria for the job. There are no shortages of students at the academy, however, and no one we spoke with complained about not being assigned certain foreign students.
American Flyers, another large flight-training company offering both Part 61 and Part 141 syllabi, shares FlightSafety's policy that the customer is always right when it comes to matching up students with flight instructors. "We hesitate to assign a 50-year-old businessman to a young or female instructor. We do it, though, and tell the customer to give it a day. If the CFI is good, and we hire good, caring teachers, nine times out of 10 the client comes back and wants to stick with that CFI. When we need to switch, it is almost always a personality conflict and not gender related," says Dave Davenport, business manager. American Flyers has no written equal-opportunity clause in its hiring rules, yet seven out of its 50 current flight instructors in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, are female. "What we look for in our CFI applicants is a CFII ticket and excellent communication skills. Our interview consists of role playing, and we like to see the applicants respond to the situations we put them in with creative solutions. None of these skills are gender specific."
One aspect of working in a male environment that almost every female I talked with felt strongly about is the necessity of working hard, doing a good job, and keeping a relatively low profile if you wanted to succeed as a teacher and make friends among your male coworkers. They work hard and avoid making mistakes because, as one CFI put it, "it seems that if there is one bad instructor and it is a guy, oh well. But if you are female and you make a mistake, then people say, well, all women instructors are bad."
They say they listen to the sometimes sexist comments and jokes without getting riled about it because they want to blend in. They don't put up a fuss if a male student doesn't want to learn from them because that would just point out that they are different, and above all, most of the female flight instructors I know, as well as myself, are hypersensitive to any implication that we are different than male instructors or male pilots.
"I've never thought of myself as a woman in this business," says Vannakay Havin, a 23-year-old CFI at FlightSafety. "The challenges I've had to face have been as a pilot, not as a woman. If you want to see [discrimination], you could probably find it [in aviation]." Havin has simply chosen not to look.
Blending in has worked well for women trying to break into male- dominated aviation, but the price they pay seems to be that they've homogenized themselves so well into the general pilot population that for the most part, the nonflying public doesn't even know women fly.
How can more women be attracted into the aviation industry, either as private or professional pilots? One important thing is to show the nonflying public that women do fly. Many of the women I interviewed said they felt like role models for other women interested in aviation. If that is the case, then they should act like role models by interacting more with the nonflying public. "I went to an all-girls Catholic school," says 19-year-old Lauren Holland, AOPA 1216504, one of Rilla Rogus' CFI trainees in Wichita. "We had career days, but no one from my aerospace technology program at SUNY Farmingdale, or any aviation program ever pitched to us." Holland's parents, both of whom work at JFK International, sparked her interest. Holland intends to make it easier for other young women like her by returning to her high school to talk with students about her career choice. Women pilots can volunteer some time for career day at a local high school or college. Participate in events that expose the general public to aviation such as AOPA's "Fly-A-Teacher," AOPA Project Pilot, or the Experimental Aircraft Association's Young Eagles program. You do not have to turn the whole focus of your life toward public works; just take a couple hours out of one day this year. It will do your heart good, and you may even pick up a student or two.
Maybe aviation has done just fine without a lot of women pilots in the past. But general aviation is currently in a decline. There are fewer student pilot starts now than since they began keeping track back in 1977, and the number isn't going up. Every pilot out there now knows at least one person who has always wanted to learn to fly but just hasn't gotten around to it.
That potential pilot might be your buddy Joe, whose office is down the hall. Consider this, though: It might also be the lead flight attendant on your trip today. She may have some free time between trips. It might be your kid's fourth-grade science teacher, who has the whole summer off to get started with her flight training. It may be your 16- year-old daughter. Did you ever think to ask her?
More people need to start flying airplanes again in this country in order to maintain the relative freedom of movement general aviation pilots have enjoyed in the past. Let's face it: Our push to recruit new pilots has not reached out to women, who, being a relatively untouched source, may represent more potential than men. We simply can't afford to ignore 50 percent of the population as we try to regrow our ranks.
Amy Laboda, AOPA 743502, is an ATP with single- and multiengine flight instructor ratings. She also is a helicopter and glider pilot. Besides being a freelance writer, she is a part-time flight instructor, wife, mother of two daughters, and the owner of a marketing consulting business in Fort Myers, Florida.
Related Articles
