Pages

Monday, January 24, 2011

Why Women Are Only 6% of Pilots

Just found about this on GolfHotelWhisky (the free online magazine and airport guide for pilots).
Dr. Penny Rafferty Hamilton, Ph.D. recently completed a two-year research project that led to the Teaching Women to Fly website. Her project involved surveying 157 female pilots, 54 of whom were in training, and the results of this work produced a list of 101 Ideas to Increase Women’s Success in General Aviation. This list was further reduced into a Top Ten list and the Top 10 Barriers That Stop Women From Learning to Fly.

Her findings? The cost of flying, although No. 1, on the list, is not the main challenge for would-be female pilots because as Scott noted, the nine items that follow can easily fit into the broader categories of educational quality and customer service that were revealed in a recent AOPA survey.

At the end of his post, Scott concluded by saying:

Certainly, men and women learn differently, but the same is true among individuals of the same sex. It all comes down to the school environment, the relationship between students and teachers.

Points well worth noting. Dr. Hamilton’s website is also well worth checking out by any female pilots or would-be pilots.

And make sure to watch this video:

No comments: