[DRAFT] Flying Through the Glass Ceiling

[Candlewhisper Archive]

A little reminiscent of other gender equality issues, of course, but its a big enough RL issue to justify approach from multiple angles. My main worry right now is that option 1's speaker sounds like she's being more reasonable, and there should probably be some balance there with option 2. Not by making option 2 more likeable, but perhaps by making option 1 less so... Will think on that.

TITLE:
Flying through the Glass Ceiling

VALIDITY:
has planes, levels of gender equality anything less than phenomenal, but also gender equality not hopelessly and systematically misogynistic.

DESCRIPTION:
Notably, the vast majority of airline pilots are men.

OPTION 1 -- CAPITALIST NATIONS
"It's not that women aren't allowed to be pilots, rather there's a global workplace bias where it remain a perceived masculine role," suggests female pilot @@randomfemalename@@. "I'd suggest you can address the cultural expectations with more visibility of role models. Maybe incentivise airlines who depict female pilots on their TV adverts, subsidise media that normalise female pilots, pay female pilots to give talks at girl's schools. Finally, you could encourage airlines to have equality policies, around gender awareness, and treating female pilots the same as male pilots. Hopefully, mine can be the last generation where we're outnumbered ten-to-one."

OUTCOME:
Leonardo DiCaprio movies about playboy aviators are being rebooted with gender-swapped protagonists

OPTION 2
"Look, little lady wants to fly a big jumbo, that's fine with us," schmoozes middle-aged male pilot @@randommalename@@, twirling his moustache. "A lot of us became pilots because of the stewardesses, you know, and more pretty faces in the air doesn't worry us boys at all. But it isn't the government's job to distort reality with inaccurate depictions of this noble calling, and if most of us guys are guys, well, who cares? Instead, why not channel that investment towards more pilot training in general, with equal opportunity for anyone who wants to become a pilot, male or female, or miscellaneous. Hell, we're open minded chaps up here in the clouds."

OUTCOME:
95% of airline pilots think high heels and short skirts should be part of a stewardess' uniform

OPTION 3
"I think my buddy here is being excessively politically correct," laughs co-pilot @@randommalename@@, whose eyes haven't left the first speaker yet, but who has yet to notice her face. "Look, being a pilot is one of the last bastions of old-fashioned manliness. No-one wants to see a female builder, or a female taxi driver, or a female pilot. Hell, I'm kind of sick of seeing female dentists, doctors and lawyers all over the place. We need schools to be teaching about gender, for sure, but we need them teaching that there's man jobs and woman jobs, and crossing that boundary is just plain weird. Am I right?"

OUTCOME:
the only way an ambitious woman can be upwardly mobile is by nabbing a rich man

[Tinhampton]

Why is this "notable?"

[Millenhaal]

Are we allowed to mention Leonardo DiCaprio?

[Trotterdam]

Is this really more of an issue with pilots than with other professions? Why?

[Australian rePublic]

And women are more likely to be childcare workers, teachers, etc. What's your point?

[Candlewhisper Archive]

And women are more likely to be childcare workers, teachers, etc. What's your point?

That'd be option 2 then, assuming there's no problem.

Having said that, there's a lot of people who do think its a problem:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/stephenric ... a15769cc80
https://pilotinstitute.com/women-aviation-statistics/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 0X21003310

Incidentally, women are only more likely to be teachers if you're talking about primary school teachers, and if you look only at OECD countries. Head outside of that age range or geography and you find there's a lot more men. Also, despite making up 15% of the primary teacher workforce, men make up 19% of the head teacher workforce in primary schools, suggesting that they are more likely to attain positions of authority in an organisation than women are.

Is this really more of an issue with pilots than with other professions? Why?

Yes, globally, it stands out more than other careers in its proportions, and in the general direction of travel of those percentages even amongst progressive westernised countries. Strangely India is the world leader in female representation amongst pilots, which is surprising given its generally large gender representation gaps in many industries, resulting from several historic government initiatives actively encouraging female participation. At the very least they serve as an anecdotal example of how government intervention does actually increase gender equality in a career.

But short answer is that this is an extreme profession, gender parity wise. 1.42% of airline captains are female. Few other careers come close to that level of skew in representation.

Are we allowed to mention Leonardo DiCaprio?

Yes. The word of God is that its okay to use real names, places, organisations, and okay to NSify them too.

To me, there's no point NSifyung a name if it makes the joke look like a spelling error (Leonard DiPraccio?). Likewise, there's only risk in using a real name if we're being actively defamatory or infringing on trademarks, and even then, satire is protected speech in most parts of the world that NS reaches.

[Trotterdam]

Is this really more of an issue with pilots than with other professions? Why?

Yes, globally, it stands out more than other careers in its proportions, and in the general direction of travel of those percentages even amongst progressive westernised countries. Strangely India is the world leader in female representation amongst pilots, which is surprising given its generally large gender representation gaps in many industries, resulting from several historic government initiatives actively encouraging female participation. At the very least they serve as an anecdotal example of how government intervention does actually increase gender equality in a career.

But short answer is that this is an extreme profession, gender parity wise. 1.42% of airline captains are female. Few other careers come close to that level of skew in representation.

Okay, well, it seems weird to me, but I can't argue with hard numbers.

I do still wonder why piloting gets singled out. I would not have pegged it is an especially manly profession. At least, it doesn't require anything in the vein of muscle strength. Honestly, it doesn't really require much of anything, as modern planes mostly fly themselves. I suppose it does require courage, or rather the ability to stay calm in a crisis. Not that crises happen all that often, but you want to be ready for them when they do.

The fact that one nation has the opposite skew from everyone else does kinda suggest that it's a random historical accident rather than something intrinsic to the profession, but that still leaves the question of how the accident happened. Are pilots just behind the times in general? Is it because pilots are only a small, elite group to begin with, and so are more insular and less welcoming of outsiders than other professions? I think that figuring out the "why" would make for a more immersive issue than just a generic gender equality debate.

[Australian rePublic]

And women are more likely to be childcare workers, teachers, etc. What's your point?

That'd be option 2 then, assuming there's no problem.

Having said that, there's a lot of people who do think its a problem:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/stephenric ... a15769cc80
https://pilotinstitute.com/women-aviation-statistics/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 0X21003310

Incidentally, women are only more likely to be teachers if you're talking about primary school teachers, and if you look only at OECD countries. Head outside of that age range or geography and you find there's a lot more men. Also, despite making up 15% of the primary teacher workforce, men make up 19% of the head teacher workforce in primary schools, suggesting that they are more likely to attain positions of authority in an organisation than women are.

Is this really more of an issue with pilots than with other professions? Why?

Yes, globally, it stands out more than other careers in its proportions, and in the general direction of travel of those percentages even amongst progressive westernised countries. Strangely India is the world leader in female representation amongst pilots, which is surprising given its generally large gender representation gaps in many industries, resulting from several historic government initiatives actively encouraging female participation. At the very least they serve as an anecdotal example of how government intervention does actually increase gender equality in a career.

But short answer is that this is an extreme profession, gender parity wise. 1.42% of airline captains are female. Few other careers come close to that level of skew in representation.

Are we allowed to mention Leonardo DiCaprio?

Yes. The word of God is that its okay to use real names, places, organisations, and okay to NSify them too.

To me, there's no point NSifyung a name if it makes the joke look like a spelling error (Leonard DiPraccio?). Likewise, there's only risk in using a real name if we're being actively defamatory or infringing on trademarks, and even then, satire is protected speech in most parts of the world that NS reaches.

Okay, you misunderstood my question, considering that many industries have a global gender imbalance, why is this issue focusing on pilots specifically rather than a wider ranger of occupations? Especially considering that the airline alone has so many gender imbalances, (for example, there are far fewer male flight attendants than female), my question is- why focus on this specific part of this specific industry, rather than a wider focus? What makes pilots so special that it's the only industry that has to be addressed.

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Because that's this issue. You may as well ask why the Harry Potter issue doesn't mention any other fantasy novels, or why the issue about mobile phones being harmful isn't asking why other portable electronic devices aren't harmful. It's okay for an issue to be about a specific thing.

[Trotterdam]

Because that's this issue.

It really isn't. None of the options are specific to piloting. The only thing that meaningfully alludes to which industry this draft is about is the mention of stewardesses in option 2. Aside from that, everything in it could be rewritten to be about a completely different profession with minimal editing.

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Okay, any suggestions as to how to make it more pilot specific?

[Trotterdam]

I dunno, you're the one claiming to know about this subject. Again: why do pilots have a so much bigger gender disparity than other professions? Surely there's been some research into that.

[Australian rePublic]

Okay, any suggestions as to how to make it more pilot specific?

Why do you wanna make it industry specific in the first place?