Abstract:

The percentage of women working as commercial pilots in the world is between 4% and 6% (CAPA, 2023).

The objective of this study is to identify the barriers that hinder girls' entry into commercial pilot training schools and propose strategies to increase the percentage of girls training to become commercial pilots.

To carry out this research, we have conducted in-depth interviews with 10 female and 10 male students from CESDA (Center for Higher Aviation Studies) and with 7 female and 7 male students who were about to enrol and finally did not do so. Reproducing the methodology of Gosálbez & López (2011), the interviews consist of five main blocks of questions:
1. Personal variables: living and educational background.
2. Factors influencing their decision to join the university: reflect on the support received, expectations or motivations.
3. Development of the studies: academic path, relationship between peers, workload distribution, classroom integration.
4. Transition to the workforce and associated perspectives.
5. Perception of equality policies.

It will be shown that sexist sociocultural dynamics persist, affecting girls' choice of this career. Although academic performance does not differ between genders, factors such as the lack of female role models, social criticism, perceptions of femininity, and concerns about their professional future influence girls' decisions. Although some girls do not perceive sexist influences, gender-related barriers are identified.

The outcome of this study is to understand these barriers to address them in the future, to promote girls' access to the commercial aviation pilot profession. Some of these barriers are the denial of discrimination, the exceptional character that is attributed to be a woman and student pilot, and the students' poor perception of belonging to a group, to the girls' team.

References:
[1] CAPA (2023) Women airline pilots: numbers are growing, but still a pitiful percentage. CAPA. https://centreforaviation.com/analysis/reports/women-airline-pilots-numbers-are-growing-but-still-a-pitiful-percentage-655755. Accessed 10 October 2023
[2] Pastor, I., & López, A. (2011). Los discursos de las alumnas de ingeniería. Percepciones de una minoría. In Jornadas La Mujer en la Ingeniería:(Ferrol, 24 mayo de 2010) (pp. 15-40). Servizo de Publicacións.

Keywords:

student pilot, women aviation pilots, gender equity, socio-cultural dynamics.