I started flying under the G.I. Bill in the mid-1960s and saw the same thing. The so-called “good old days” weren’t so good for everyone, and the exclusivity in aviation was just a fact of life back then. Things have changed for the better, but as pointed out, some attitudes are still stuck in the past.
I came here to say that! I was loving Kevin’s writing 30-plus years ago, and I was thrilled to see Kevin’s name resurface!
Dull Witted Horny Men is a great name for my next oldies cover band!
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Loved this piece!
I’m not going to argue or discuss any of this, but to only relay two stories. In my nonjob as an aviation and space museum docent, I heard that when the first B-29s rolled out, the crack top-of-the-heap pilots chosen to fly them were surprised, an in some cases shocked and even repulsed, to learn their flight instructors were two women. They got over it, learning not only they were the best instructors for the job but the women held their fates in their hands.
Also in my experience, a few years back at the EAA convention in Oshkosh I met Bernice “Bee” Haydu, at age 97 still fitting her WASP pilot uniform. She passed at age 100, and until today I marvel at how this tiny (maybe 5’1") engineering flight test and ferry pilot muscled around WWII bombers and fighters. Bee was a remarkable proponent of women in aviation for her entire life.
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Just make sure you are proud of the right things, Kent.
I have no idea what you are talking about. Be more specific, please.
A memory that stuck with me for last 30-some years. I was done all my trips and really wanted to be home. I found a Southwest flight going home but stuffed full, so I grabbed the jumpseat. Soon after, a tired looking female Southwest FO showed up and likewise wanted to get home. I started to move over to the second jumpseat, which in a 737 is designed for toddlers. The captain got irate, pointed at her shoulder and said 3 STRIPES and pointed at my shoulder and said 4 STRIPES. He wanted me to climb out, here to climb into the tiny seat, and then me to climb in again. I decided to just move over and thus was a few hundred miles of the captain refusing to look at me or talk to me and the lady in the middle trying to use laser death ray eyes to kill the pilot whenever he wasn’t looking at us and the copilot wishing to be beamed up by the Starship Enterprise. I was spending a lot of time looking at the panel in case I was the only survivor of a cockpit massacre and needed to know how to turn on the microwave or something.
The captains utter disgust at having a women try and get the better seat was entirely obvious, I was thinking not only on the hold-the-door politeness level, but I did not work for SW and didn’t think I rated above their own employees.
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We all agree that discriminating AGAINST women is wrong. That’s obvious.
What’s apparently not so obvious is that discriminating FOR women is just as wrong.
Because in order to discriminate FOR someone, you must discriminate AGAINST someone else.
It would be! I’ll come see you play.
Yeah, but when you stuff the entire process with white men for 100 years, undoing that is not easy. Also note I knew a white guy with 400 hours total and maybe 10 twin that got on with United when 3,000 hours was more the norm, he DEI’ed his way in on the “family connections” allocation. The legal requirement for FOs back then was 250 hours, so the airlines were equiped to train from that level if they had to.
This article is attacking a straw man. “Women have the same check ride as men.” Of course they do. No one is saying they don’t.
The discrimination is actually happening at the hiring stage. United said they want 50% of their pilots to be either women or POC. Because women are only about 10% of applicants, they will have to hire every woman who applies, and reject some of the men simply for being men. And they still will fail to meet their quota.
The solution to past discrimination is to STOP discriminating.
If they pass the checkride, they are by definition good to go. Are the checkrides too easy?
Kevin,
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Yep, in the professional world everyone has to meet the same standards. Period. If anything, members of the “good old boys club” sometimes got a bit of a pass if they had a bad day. In my 43 years of military and airline flying the level of skill exhibited was completely independent of any “personal” factor.
Airlines are still 95% male, so I don’t think males are being DEI’ed out of flying anytime soon. We can chill out 
That’s not the point. The point is that discrimination on the basis of race or sex in hiring is wrong, and also illegal under the Civil Rights Act.
But when it comes to check rides, we all know that a below average pilot can pass a check ride. The purpose of check rides is not to determine the best pilots, only to prevent the worst ones from flying.
Let’s say that check rides eliminate the worst performing 10% of pilots. Now suppose I’m running an airline. I have to hire 20 pilots. I get applications from 90 men and 10 women, who are all evenly distributed in skills. In order to meet my quota I select the best 10 men and all 10 women. Now what’s going to happen? One woman will wash out of training. One woman is in the top 10%, but the rest are all somewhere in the middle. I could have hired the best 20%, (including two women) and had the best skilled pilots available. Instead I have some average and below average pilots. Even though they all passed the check ride, I have reduced the quality of my pilots overall. And I’ve unfairly discriminated against a lot of above average people.
You’re right Kevin, your topic is just not worth commenting on. I’m wondering why you even took the time to write about it. It is really just a complete bore. So tell me, why did you feel the need to regurgitate it?
Kevin. Great job. Statistically women make up 7% of the pilot population but only cause 2% of the accidents. Let that sink in.
80 % of the male pilots that flew for my charter company were great. 10% were on the fence between good and evil, the last 10% caused 100% of the problems. Mostly male.
My mother scored her Private license in 1942 by using her gas ration stamps to buy fuel for a Taylor craft. 3 years later she built and opened a public airport in Alpena Michigan. She was 23 years old. My mother was a founder and charter member of the Michigan 99’s. Growing up my brother and I were surrounded by
wonderful Women pilots.
The overwhelming majority of stupid pilot decisions ate made by male pilots.
If the Army promoted someone that shouldn’t have been promoted (male or female) it is on them. If Endeavor promoted someone (male or female) that shouldn’t have been promoted, it is on them .
There will always be a racist class of people no matter their color, there will always be a self- imposed superior class. The racist and superior are the 10% mentioned above.
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Disheartening and shocking to read how many troglodytes survive in our ranks.
Hopefully they all will be retired soon if not already…
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I have never been a racist. I have never been a sexist. Nevertheless I am constantly told that I am precisely those things and don’t even realize it. Supposedly, not realizing it makes me even more of a racist and/or sexist.
The real issue here is not racism or sexism. It is politics and government intrusion attempting to force its desired outcomes in society. Let good people behave as good people and you will see that 99% of societal problems will fix themselves in the absence of government mandates. Every question people make about DEI is not based on a bigoted person’s -ism. Pay attention and you might discover that they are complaining about governmental social engineering and its flawed outcomes.
My wife was advanced to a vp position with a national organization and presented to the board on her first day in the position as “our newest person of color on the executive leadership team”. She had to tell them, “No, I am your newest VP on the team, my color is of no importance. Please do not refer to me that way”. She absolutely did not want the fact that she checked two of the boxes that were on the CEO’s list of compensation based goals to be the reason she was promoted - whether real or perceived.
Today’s world does a disservice to talented and capable individuals by promoting to the world that this team, this cockpit crew, this individual is to be celebrated, that we the people in charge (who picked them) need to be celebrated, not because these people are the most capable by far, no, they and we are to be celebrated because of the boxes they check, the right boxes with the latest social engineering scheme to right the wrongs of the last century that hardly any of us were even around to have participated in.
We should do everything we can to embrace and welcome every individual into the field or profession they desire. It is not our job to decide how many people of a certain demographic MUST be in that field and artificially construct that outcome. It doesn’t matter if my grand dad did things wrong. Those days and those people are gone. Let good people today simply be good people all on their own and stop beating us for the sins of people long gone already. DEI is only the soft bigotry of saying “These people can’t do it alone, they need me and my government to carry their water”. Give it a break already and stop conflating your politics with my supposed lack of morality.
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