I've been female all my life (more than 50 years and this does not "appeal" to me. It's appalling. I have a doctorate in Developmental Psychology and I know something about brain physiology. The first female carrier-based combat qualified military pilot was Kara Hulgreen (105/65-10/25/94). She, like the rest of us, simply don't know and can't know what we do not know. So she was the face of equality for women in service when she overshot her landing on a carrier and crashed herself and her jet into the sea. Now, back to what we do know. Men generally have superior visual-spatial skills, integrated with motor skills and it's in the brain. Not all men are better than women in these areas but @100% of males with IQs above 120 (college graduate level) are superior to @ 99% of females. Also, another thing we have known for centuries: Practice makes perfect (*if you have the requisites for skills needed to start with). So, what appeals to me when I fly is that the pilot and co-pilot are men between the ages of 35-50 who have at least 10,000 hours flying time and who speak English as well as any other languages used by air traffic control.
Interesting about visual-spatial skills/motor skills. I didn't know that. I too feel happy to see a couple of middle-aged male pilots. It might be related but It used to be, say from 1920s to 1975-ish, that boys and young men worked on their cars, tractors, etc and self-repaired them--giving them extra-special mechanical skills. They liked it because they could do it well and it also saved them money. An entire generation of boys with those very practical skills fought in WWII and had amazing skills and talents with mechanical equipment and systems. I guess those same young men could shoot rifles/guns with some skill too--not so much women (except Annie Oakley, who was a huge star with huge skills!)
Now that you've mentioned visual-spatial/motor skills, it would seem that men would be especially well-suited for air traffic control; jumbling a great deal of information with no room for error. You must be able to visualize quickly in 3 dimensions when they look at their screens. And they mostly are men. But recentaly I've heard ATC voice comms in news of near-misses and I've heard a distinctive black women's once and a black man's voice on another one of those. Candidates for that work have to pass a battery of tests and hopefully people are not crazy enough to dilute those requirements for DEI purposes... It's extremely demanding mentally.
Pilots also have to project competence and they come on the PA when needed in special cases and give confident and self-assured communications to all the passengers. Of course the stewards/stewardesses do that quite well too.
I've been female all my life (more than 50 years and this does not "appeal" to me. It's appalling. I have a doctorate in Developmental Psychology and I know something about brain physiology. The first female carrier-based combat qualified military pilot was Kara Hulgreen (105/65-10/25/94). She, like the rest of us, simply don't know and can't know what we do not know. So she was the face of equality for women in service when she overshot her landing on a carrier and crashed herself and her jet into the sea. Now, back to what we do know. Men generally have superior visual-spatial skills, integrated with motor skills and it's in the brain. Not all men are better than women in these areas but @100% of males with IQs above 120 (college graduate level) are superior to @ 99% of females. Also, another thing we have known for centuries: Practice makes perfect (*if you have the requisites for skills needed to start with). So, what appeals to me when I fly is that the pilot and co-pilot are men between the ages of 35-50 who have at least 10,000 hours flying time and who speak English as well as any other languages used by air traffic control.
Interesting about visual-spatial skills/motor skills. I didn't know that. I too feel happy to see a couple of middle-aged male pilots. It might be related but It used to be, say from 1920s to 1975-ish, that boys and young men worked on their cars, tractors, etc and self-repaired them--giving them extra-special mechanical skills. They liked it because they could do it well and it also saved them money. An entire generation of boys with those very practical skills fought in WWII and had amazing skills and talents with mechanical equipment and systems. I guess those same young men could shoot rifles/guns with some skill too--not so much women (except Annie Oakley, who was a huge star with huge skills!)
Now that you've mentioned visual-spatial/motor skills, it would seem that men would be especially well-suited for air traffic control; jumbling a great deal of information with no room for error. You must be able to visualize quickly in 3 dimensions when they look at their screens. And they mostly are men. But recentaly I've heard ATC voice comms in news of near-misses and I've heard a distinctive black women's once and a black man's voice on another one of those. Candidates for that work have to pass a battery of tests and hopefully people are not crazy enough to dilute those requirements for DEI purposes... It's extremely demanding mentally.
Pilots also have to project competence and they come on the PA when needed in special cases and give confident and self-assured communications to all the passengers. Of course the stewards/stewardesses do that quite well too.