A Scary Initiative
United Airlines has announced their goal to employ 50% of their pilots to be female or those of color. Sadly, any airline with this goal is losing sight of the importance of performance. The plane does not care about gender, color, race, sexual orientation, or political affiliation. My requirement is that my fellow pilot can fly, they have the ability to communicate, can think, manage stress, and a good sense of humor helps with those long flights.
Furthermore, the strides that women and minorities have taken and achieved to obtain their jobs by performance will all be for nothing. We will flash back to the days when it's assumed we were a token employee, and many will be. This is not the way the world should attack diversity in any industry. Especially in an industry that demands safety. The most important aspect of a pilot is their ability not the color of their skin or their gender.
It's great that we have laws to prevent discrimination, but those laws should protect everyone. If this quota and effort is allowed, then we are discriminating against qualified and competent male pilots. How can that possibly be the right thing to do?
How to Avoid Discrimination
There is one way to ensure that discrimination is non-existent in the airline industry and that is to get rid of managers who have the capacity to differentiate. Each airline should require all managers in every department to take a psychological test to assess their capacity and inclination toward a discriminatory mindset, and remove them from any leadership role or pilot hiring involvement. Remove those people who discriminate and this will ensure that the best candidate is employed.
United Airlines, you are an inspiring and forward thinking airline, but this is not the best thing to do for so many reasons. You should remove your managers who discriminate and employ the most qualified applicant.
I'm wondering if this is another means in which the the industry officials are intentionally weakening the pilot force to support their cause for an automation takeover. This is not an assertion that women and those of color are not the best candidates. If they are employed for their abilities then they are the best. Make that happen!
It's difficult to believe that anyone thinks this is a good idea. If we continue as a society that differentiates people based upon qualities that don't matter, we will perpetuate discrimination into the minds and hearts of our children forever. This will never end. Isn't it time we just behave as good humans with a brain that understands we are all equal and should have the same opportunities as everyone else?
My vote it's time to end this language and simply wake up.
What do you think?
Enjoy the Journey!
XO Karlene
This is a nightmare of an idea. We are moving back into the dark ages. Look around at the people in government who have been appointed because of their "diversity" instead of qualifications. No. No. No. I was the 4th female hired at NWA, and it was hard enough being qualified. This type of hiring criteria will make it harder on minorities, not easier, and they will quit. Or maybe this is the end goal?
ReplyDeleteThere has to be more to this process or those who are coming up with this idea are not thinking it through. I believe this is a horrible idea too. Thanks for your comment!
DeleteKarlene, as you know, I, too, was among the first women, and I agree wholeheartedly with you. The thing that made it toughest on us was the impression that we were all "200-hour wonders" based on some airlines' push to hire ANY women with 200 hours to show the world their diversity efforts! It backfires and the ones most hurt by it are the ones the program purports to help! TRUE equality, which should be what we all want, bases hiring on ability and qualifications NOT skin color or gender. Quotas and artificial diversity requirements are an insult and say to the world that we need special accommodations and can't get there on merit. The opportunities for women, people of color, all ethnicities are equal, but the choice to do the work necessary to get equally qualified... IS a choice!
DeletePamela, thanks for your comment. I too agree and the worst part of all this is that woman who gets employed in this program might be the best. She will be treated as a token So why not employ her for her performance and not her gender. There is a way to conduct performance based assessments. Performance is not "how many hours"... but decision making, life experience, judgement... etc. These efforts will backfire for sure. Personally I think the current day efforts are marketing ploys... but as you say, they will backfire. I think we would be in a color and gender blind world now if we didn't do this stuff. Just judge people for who they are and what they do. Judge by ability and integrity. Thanks for your comment!
Deletelet there be variety on the flightdeck. what united is doing is fine. its giving people a chance who would otherwise would not have had a chance because of economic considerations. its not about flying 727s anymore. i am a pilot of colour. i find the protests coming from one side of the aviation community. that side is not the only side with the talent and ability. grow up and wake up. thanks
ReplyDeleteCourtnay, I am a pilot of female gender. I get it. More than you know. You're correct... there is talent and ability on all sides. But I am professing to hire for that ability not for any other reason. I never believed that a female firefighter should have lower standards. If a man has to carry an 80lb hose up 10 flights of stairs, then a woman should too, or people may die in the fire. The only protest is let's make this world color blind. This is not doing it. There is an FAA/Corporate induced pilot shortage afoot and this is completely unnecessary. Fix the leadership and the problem will be solved without labeling anyone. Thank you for your comment and glad you made your dream come true!
DeleteDo you REALLY get it though? You're a white woman. As an Asian American, I feel for Courtnay. We get judged for how we look, or our skin tone. I've had countless people make Asian jokes throughout my career, and even at my 121 carrier that I've been at for years. Last month on a trip with augmented crew, I got called "the token Asian" by the other pilots. Do you have this kind of experience? I remember hearing you speak at WAI when I was at the regionals, frustrated from the lost decade. You seemed like a crusader for female pilots, and now I'm wondering who you really are. Calling it "woke" just seems like a copout. Sorry, the privilege is just too strong in this blog post and comment. Feeling really disappointed.
DeleteK Tanaka, I'm sorry you are disappointed. I do get it. I do know. I have lived it. And, I have lived worse than you could ever imagine based on my gender. I am fighting back for that atrocity now. I am so sorry those things happened to you. You did not deserve that. The first women at NWA were called C1 C1 and C3... and not for the compressor stages of an engine. But this is not what this is about. That behavior is horrific and should never have happened to you, or any woman or any person of color. But isolating and selecting out and making quotas will never fix what happened in the past. I fear it will make it more difficult for the future generation of women. We have to heal society, make that language socially unacceptable and that begins with leadership. But, this has nothing to do with pilot hiring based on appearance instead of ability and performance. I am a crusader of women to do anything and have a voice. I'm sorry... this in not what this was about. This is repeating history. We really don't want to do that. We want to get better. I'm there for you.
DeleteK Tanaka, women fighting women and calling each other names is not cool. Yes, I have been called names, a lot worse than "token Asian." Lots of horrible women jokes, too. Some of us fought some hard battles, too. I was C4 at Northwest. The blacks were N1 and N2. Yes, there were only two. The only way to get through this is with a sense of humor, not anger. What United is doing will only make it harder on the minorities coming up, trust me on this. I've been there. But I loved my career and wouldn't trade it for the world!
DeleteKathy, thanks for the comment! It was a great career but looking forward to retiring! For so many reason! :)
DeleteAs a former private pilot, I don't worry about current pilot's qualifications because hitherto fore, I have been confident they were well trained and qualified on the equipment or they won't have been hired. If that changes, it will make a huge difference in passenger confidence. A good friend of mine was a retired NW/Delta Captain. His stories of close calls, near misses and other mishaps is very sobering. I don't want any second stringers in the cockpit flying my airplane. It didn't work in medical school and it won't work here either.
ReplyDeleteDavid, I actually laughed out loud at the reason for not worrying because of training. Ahhh... Perhaps that is the very reason I am so worried. It's difficult when you know the truth of what is going on behind the curtain. I had a Federal Judge tell me that ASAP reports are at an all time high and the fixes are non-existent. There is so much truth to that, and that is a training issue. Thank you so much for your comment.
DeleteDavid might want to look up Atlas 3591
DeleteZWeis, yes he should!!!
DeleteA very interesting and much needed perspective
ReplyDeleteThank you Sabu!
DeleteYour first sentence is wrong and deflates your entire argument. The 50% Target is for the Aviate Academy students, not United Airlines pilots. Aviate is one of many pipelines to the United flight deck, and while it should increase the percentage of pilots belonging to minority demographics on United flight decks, it's certainly not going to disadvantage anybody.
ReplyDeleteIf it's interpreted either way... the point is to not discriminate... and that means for everyone. Any quota is isolating others, and this job needs people employed based on performance and ability, not gender and color. Doesn't matter if it's 50%, 10%, or the actual amount of "80% in the first class" that was comprised of females and people of color" I think that's great these people are getting employed... but I do not think that selection on gender and color is a smart idea. This is an interesting article: https://tinyurl.com/2p8vtwdr
DeleteThanks for sharing your opinion.
Thank you Karlene for a great blog. If some air line flight operations managers were sincerely interested in diversity in our cockpits, it would happen and there would not be a need for quotas. I have flown with hundreds of non white non male pilots and they are the same caliber of white male pilots. Just like white males, most are outstanding and a few are not so good. A quota had nothing to do with that fact. When I am riding in an airplane, I want the most qualified and best trained pilots in the cockpit and a quota does not provide that. It takes many talents to be an outstanding pilot and quotas do not screen for those talents. Aviation managers need to actively pursue those people who possess those talents regardless of race or gender and encourage them to succeed.
ReplyDeleteFlyboy, you could not have said it any better... "quotas do not test for those talents"... The problem might be that managers don't know what those talents are because they lack knowledge. A scary path we are headed down. Thanks for the comment!
DeleteThat kind of discrimination....quotas...whatever it's called is not tolerable. You simply kill all opportunities for qualified male pilots. And for what? Politic ? Feminism ? Revenge ? Woke as a new stupid concept ? Whatever the reason it's stupid and not acceptable. I have lived that before and it has significantly slowed down my career progression. I am not an American citizen. My country has not a similar developped aviation, so it doesnot help.
DeleteAnonymous, You're right it is not tolerable. I'm sorry for slow career progression. Hopefully we can change the world for the better soon.
DeleteA question: Why are there so many more female controllers, proportionately speaking, than female pilots? Haven't seen any statistics, but judging from the voices on the radio, controllers are around 30% female, maybe even more.
ReplyDeleteDavid, Great question and you were close!
DeleteOf the 9,430 Air Traffic Controllers currently employed in the United States,
22.8% of them are women, 73.3% are men and 3.9% unknown. The most common ethnicity of Air Traffic Controllers is White (69.7%), followed by Hispanic or Latino (14.5%) and Black or African American (9.5%).
So... why more female controllers than pilots? Perhaps because they are home every night and it's easier to have a family. Perhaps men want the higher paying job, because they are the "traditional" bread-winner? Air Traffic Controllers are paid an average annual salary of $60,726, significantly lower than an airline pilot in the US. Therefore, I'm thinking working married working women don't need the highest paying job, they compromise to be able to manage it all. Thanks for the great question.
A little surprised, I thought controllers were better paid than that these days...OTOH, I believe there are a *lot* of airline pilots who are working for less than $60K, at commuter airlines & maybe at some regionals as well.
ReplyDeleteAlso, to what extent do both controller and pilot salaries include cost-of-living factors based on where they live?...there are *huge* differences between locations, and my sense is that they are getting even more huge.
On the high side... Washington, DC pays an annual average wage of $83,962, the highest in the US... I think for cost of living, or maybe the stress. But sadly, Air Traffic Controllers average starting salary is $29,000. How can anyone survive on that? It's not even minimum wage.
DeleteIn 2021, women earned 92% of what men earned. The top 10% of highest-paid Air Traffic Controllers earn as much as $126,000 or more. Connecticut is the best state for Air Traffic Controllers to live. I'm not sure about controllers cost of living, and why DC is high... but pilots are not paid by cost of living, because we can generally live wherever we want.
Karlene, they want to add more minorities to the training pipeline - to get hired, a pilots still need to meet the same bar as everyone. They just want the pipeline to be more diverse to begin with. No one is talking about lowering the bar. Also - remember exposure matters. It will help the industry move over the hump when these students are being “seen” by other members of their community.
ReplyDeleteThank you Denisia for the polite comment. I hope that's what happens. We need pilots. My question is why did they advertise they were doing this? Why not just naturally select candidates. I just feel sad for the young man that lost his Dad, mom's working two jobs, he's working as many as he can scraping together, but caring for his sibling, and would love to go to the training pipeline at United, but he can't because he is the wrong gender and skin color. His life skills would make him a great pilot and now... he won't even try knowing he doesn't fit the quota agenda. I think think that's sad. I just wish we would stop labeling people. That's all. But I do appreciate your thoughts. I know that program is helping many!! That's a good thing. It's just those that it harms is the concern.
DeleteHello, your point of view; while valid, is easily misconstrued as can be attested by David M's comment above. To start off, the training process for pilots (at least here in Canada) is standardized.
ReplyDeleteThere is no such thing as a 'second stringer' in our cockpits. As for near misses and incidents; we are all human, subject to the same deficiencies. A hiring quota, if executed properly, will only be giving someone just as qualified as you the opportunity to start training a few months to a year ahead of you. The disadvantage to a white male pilot exists, however it is the price to be paid to ensure our daughters (yours and mine) grow up in a society where a Pilot Barbie is mainstream.
In closing, the world does not operate in absolutes. The competence delta for pilots is the same regardless of gender, sexual orientation or the colour of your skin. Equality hiring initiatives mean prioritizing who gets interviewed or given a start date from within a pool of equally qualified pilots.
O.S. I'm glad your training is standardized in Canada... at least at your company. I conducted my doctoral research including that variable and over 7400 pilots worldwide state differently. Absolutely the key is if they do it right. However, years ago United was court ordered to hire a quota of women and they did not do it right. It bit them, and hurt those women and all women in the process because we got flagged and had to live through the quota label and harassment for years. I just see this coming full circle. Yes, you can train anyone to fly these planes. I could train my 10 year old granddaughter. But it's more than physically managing the plane, it's handling stress, using experience, and having situational awareness beyond the plane and projecting your situation into the future. There are thousands of ASAP reports and incidents that identify training is not what it should be. More will come out on this in 2027. However, you should read Normalization of Deviance, a threat to aviation safety and we'll talk. https://tinyurl.com/mr24dzrt
DeleteAlso... I'm a woman, I do not think its fair if I got a job ahead of a man who had more experience and was better qualified because of my gender. I am equally disturbed when that man gets the job because I am a woman and he's not qualified. I can give you list of chief pilot names where that are more highly qualified women to do that job. One thing I know to be true... two wrongs don't make a right. I do not begrudge anyone in that program. I actually have recommended young people to go that route because it's an opportunity for them and they have no other option. Some of those are young white men. But is it fair that they won't have the same opportunity because of quotas? Just my thought. Email me if you want to discuss but we can agree to have differing opinions. Thanks for your comment.
"The disadvantage to a white male pilot exists, however it is the price to be paid to ensure our daughters (yours and mine) grow up in a society where a Pilot Barbie is mainstream."
DeleteNobody should pay a price. If it is wrong for one color or sex it is wrong for all. You will never get rid of unjustified discrimination by continuing to discriminate unjustifiably. Instead of "Pilot Barbie", embrace "Pilot Extraordinaire"
Excellent point. Today is a different world. We have a pilot shortage. Anyone can get a job... women too. The problem we women had in the past is that we were suspect to get the job only because we were women. We should have laws to prohibit anyone from discriminating for anything. For the most part we do... gender, race religion age... so pilots are needed, and there are laws protecting. Not sure if we have to eliminate other people. That doesn't seem right.
DeleteFrom the United Aviate website:
ReplyDelete“ Today, United has one of the most diverse pilot populations of any U.S. carrier with nearly 20% of our pilot group made up of women or people of color. We are working toward raising that number even higher by partnering with diversity-led organizations and continuing to remove gender and racial barriers. And we’re going one step further with plans for 50% of United Aviate Academy students being women or people of color to ensure our students reflect the diversity of the customers and communities we serve.”
Please do not disparage United for making efforts at the student-level to encourage diversity.
Thank you for sharing. I don't think that stating an opinion that this is not the right thing to do is disparaging United. Just disagreeing with the methodology.
DeleteWoke pressure!!!!
ReplyDeleteWhat happened to qualified people getting hired based off skill and experience not skin color or gender. Aviation accidents were rare but the way thing are going that will all change and innocent lives will be lost. Think about going to a dentist for cardiac surgery instead of a certified thoracic cardiac surgeon
We have to believe they will not pass training if they can't fly. However, there are problems with this because aviation is so challenging that if you don't have the desire and passion, I suspect many of these people will leave early. This will be interesting to watch.
Delete