Gender issues in the flight-deck : an exploratory analysis

Aviation is a historically masculine occupation and the under-representation of female pilots in aviation led to the present research on possible gender bias among male pilots. A newly developed 4-factor measure of gender attitude was examined for construct and differential validity. Using data from 2009 pilots from the United States of America, South Africa, Australia and Norway, the 4-factor AGAQ was found to have adequate goodness of fit indices when using confirmatory factor analysis. Females scored higher than males on all factors, and instructors scored higher than pilots did on three factors. There were also differences in scores among pilots from different countries. Results also indicated that the opportunity to fly with the opposite gender and completing Crew Resource Management training also tended to increase scores leading to a more positive perception of female pilots. The benefits, and the limitations, of the measure are discussed.