The impact of gender disparity on flight deck safety

Introduction
Gender inequality has longways been an issue in the workplace (Stamarski & Son Hing, 2015), including the aviation sector (e.g. Mitchell, Kristovics, & Vermeulen, 2006). Taking a closer look at the gender disparities between pilots it becomes clear that female pilots have always been compared to their male counterpart, in particular when it comes to ability, and, with that, aviation related accidents (McFadden, 1996). Despite airline diversity goals (Kristovics, Mitchell, Vermeulen, Wilson, & Martinussen, 2006), a discussion has arisen on the issue of gender on the flight deck, and the alleged impact gender has on both decision making and stress management (Bazargan & Guzhva, 2011; Mitchell et al. 2006). This essay therefore questions whether gender diversity truly impacts the performance and thus safety on the flight deck. Based on the following arguments presented in this essay, it is posited that female pilots do not affect flight deck performance because there is no lack of skill or ability, no probability of a pilot error causing an accident based on gender, and no negative impact of crew resource management training.

Flight deck safety imperilment by women
Ever since the origination of the aviation sector, female pilots have been, and still are, the target of prejudice by their male colleagues (Walton & Politano, 2014). Reasons as to why female pilots are often perceived negative can be contributed to a triad of factors, namely, skill and ability (Mitchell et al., 2006), culture (Davey & Davidson, 2000), and crew resource management (CRM) training (Walton & Politano, 2014; Vermeulen, 2009; Helmreich, Merritt, & Wilhelm, 1999). Based on available research, several arguments can be made as to why females do not imperil the safety on the flight deck.

First, when it comes to skill and ability, Mitchell et al. (2006) found that female pilots scored higher than male pilots on flying proficiency and safety orientation factors. Mitchell et al. (2006) too show that many pilots tend to have negative perceptions that may be harmful to performance in multi-crew mixed gender settings. This relates to the common female stereotype that women, according to Fiske (as cited in Bauer & Baltes, 2002, p. 466), are

‘seen as nice but incompetent’, whereas men are seen as ‘competent but maybe not nice’.

This is substantiated by Germain, Herzog, & Hamilton (2012) by suggesting that out of all work environments, female pilots may be working in the most adverse settings. Negative perceptions like these may result in gender bias, prejudice, harassment, and discrimination based on gender (Mitchell et al., 2006), which, within a multi-crew environment, can have a negative effect and thus have a negative impact on flight safety (Vermeulen, 2009). It is therefore of importance that negative perceptions like these are dealt with during CRM training in order to increase flight deck performance (Walton & Politano, 2014).

Second, in their paper on difficulties faced by female pilots, Davey & Davidson (2000), found that it was hard for male pilots to adapt to female pilots and often demonstrated a hostile attitude. It is known that women in gender-incongruent roles differ greatly when it comes to health-related issues as they experience more problems with, amongst others, stress (Walton & Politano, 2014), self-efficacy (Walton & Politano, 2014; see also Germain et al., 2012), and fatigue (Mitchell et al., 2006). In fact, women experience lower organisational support and dedication compared to their male counterparts (Walton & Politano, 2014). Conversely, however, research shows that the more male pilots fly with female colleagues, the more likely they were to perceive female pilots positively in regard to safety orientation (Mitchell et al., 2006; see also Walton & Politano, 2014). However, it is important to stress that not all women are promoting equality as some of them still incite racist comments (Davey & Davidson, 2000).

A study of the impact of gender, age and experience of pilots on general aviation (GA) accidents by Bazargan & Guzhva (2011) states that there is no difference in terms of the probability of a pilot error causing an accident when it comes to gender (see also McFadden, 1996). Importantly, Bazargan & Guzhva (2011) found that female GA pilots are less likely than their male counterparts to be involved in fatal accidents. Another research conducted by Walton & Politano (2016) on general aviation accidents that involve mixed crews also failed to support the stereotype that women are less competent than male pilots. However, no substantial research has been found that indicates whether these results are in line with human factors related to civil aviation.

As a measure to counter the human factor related errors on the flight deck, crew resource management (CRM) was introduced. CRM has been widely seen as a way of minimising pilot error by optimising the use of human resources on the flight deck (Walton & Politano, 2014; Helmreich, Merritt, & Wilhelm, 1999). Yet, in order for it to work, it requires acceptance of, and by, every crew member (Walton & Politano, 2014; Vermeulen, 2009). Consequently, problems in a multi-crew setting may arise when these prejudices are not discussed during CRM and human factor trainings (Vermeulen, 2009). It is therefore that CRM should incorporate the negative perceptions of males toward female flight crew (Walton & Politano, 2014) and the topic of harassment (Davey & Davidson, 2000).

One way of achieving a more positive perception of females by males, is aviation computer games for CRM training (Baker, Prince, Shrestha, Oser, & Salas, 1993). Where drawbacks have been found to CRM methods as a measure to counter human errors, such as role plays and scenarios (Baker et al., 1993), the use of games to train flight crew has a positive impact on the flight reliability and flight safety (Tretyakov & Zakharov, 2018). It is important to highlight that, despite the positive impact CRM has on flight deck safety, CRM cannot remove human error from the flight deck as ‘error is an inevitable result of the natural limitations of human performance and the function of complex systems’ (Helmreich, Merritt, & Wilhelm, 1999). Notably, however, even though CRM games impact flight safety positively, it is unknown whether CRM games have an effect on the perception disparity between male and female crew.

Discussion
This essay assessed the role and impact of female flight crew on flight deck performance, and thus safety, and examined the position of crew resource management training in the process.

It can be argued that the main reason safety on the flight deck could be imperilled is not due to the fact that there is a difference in ability amongst both genders (Mitchell et al.,2006). In fact, it can be stated that it is the underlying principle of ostracism and sexism shared amid male pilots. The underlying bias goes to show that it is not due to the presence of females on the flight deck. Rather, the negative perception of female pilots’ capabilities in regard to safety and performance on the flight deck (Walton & Politano, 2014). It is these negative perceptions that result in an imbalance in unity, which is so often seen as paramount to flight safety, that consequently imperil the safety on the flight deck. It can therefore be argued that it is a perceptual problem that lies with male pilots rather than that of the female pilots. In fact, one plausible explanation could be that the presence of hierarchy and the historical perception of male strength play a role in the disregarding of skill and ability of female flight crew by their male counterpart.

Crew resource management (CRM) training provides a platform for crew to be trained in mixed-crew settings. Computer games can therein play a vital role (Tretyakov & Zakharov, 2018; Baker et al., 1993). However, the use of CRM training will never be the complete solution to eradicate human factor errors on the flight deck (Helmreich et al., 1999). Despite the research, it remains evident that women are underrepresented in literature studies concerning flight deck performance and safety (Germain et al., 2012). Female representation on the flight deck still remains an issue, and it is not due to the fact that women are less capable of flying (Walton & Politano, 2016) or that they cause more incidents (Walton & Politano, 2016; Bazargan & Guzhva, 2011; McFadden, 1996).

To summarise, even though discrimination is not uncommon in modern day society, it may and should not allow for an unsafe work environment which, in itself, creates unsafe behaviour by the flight crew. This essay provides substantiation to the fact that female pilots do not affect flight performance and safety based on skill and ability, culture, and crew resource management training. A shift in culture in a male dominated industry is difficult, but, together with changes to crew resource management training, can result in a decline in ostracism and sexism. This alleviation could then cause for a decrease in work pressure, which subsequently could increase flight deck safety even more.

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