Year: 2017
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Despite it being over a century since the first woman gained a pilot s licence,\npiloting remains a male-dominated profession. Worldwide, only 3% of airline\npilots are women and, of these, only 450 hold the rank of Captain, a number\nwho could easily be seated within a single A380. UK airlines are recognising\nthat the low number and proportion of female pilots is an issue and some\ncarriers, including easyJet, have introduced initiatives to promote gender\ndiversity on the flightdeck. However, as there are few female pilots qualifying\nand applying for airline jobs, there is a compelling need to both examine why\nrelatively few women consider a career as a pilot and then understand the\nchallenges those who do make a non-traditional career choice and enter the\nprofession face during their initial (ab initio) training in reconciling their\ndeveloping professional identity as a pilot with their gender identity as a\nwoman.\nThe aim of this thesis is to explore the effects of women ab initio pilots \nminority status on their gender and professional identities. To address this\naim, the thesis utilises the Theory of Tokenism, together with concepts of\nGender Performativity and Professional Identity, to explore the experiences\nof ab-initio pilots at two UK-based Flight Training Schools. New empirical\nevidence, derived from in-depth interviews and surveys, found that female\ncadets perceive elements of their professional identities differently from men,\nand women cadets adopt a range of strategies to negotiate conflicts between\ntheir developing professional and gender identities. The research examines\nthe experiences of these cadets to make both theoretical and empirical\ncontributions to existing studies of gender-dominated professions as well as\noffering practical recommendations to airlines and flight training schools who\nare seeking to encourage more women to qualify as commercial airline pilots.
Author: Faye McCarthy
Language: English
Subfield: Gender Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2811143557