Central Washington University is well known for having a great aviation program and prides itself on working to create equal opportunities for everyone in the program. I have two friends who are women in the aviation program and have heard about their positive and negative experiences and their peers’ experiences. But does the program have a bias between the female and male students?
The Crimson and Black CWU article states, “The industry is changing; it’s less of a good ol’ boy system…Our program is this blending pot of people from a lot of different backgrounds who are going to be pilots. That’s amazing.” What I have heard about the program from multiple sources there is often a disadvantage and an unfair hierarchy between women and men. From their personal experiences, they have noticed a disadvantage with the program. I interviewed two of the individuals in the CWU aviation program who are going to remain completely anonymous; the alias names I will be using throughout this article are Raven and Hawk. “By contrast, Central’s incoming class for the current academic year is 30% women.” Only around 20 girls (from what my sources know), were admitted for the 2023-2024 academic school year and most of them got kicked out, Raven and Hawk stated, with a result of only around 11 girls left. Raven also noticed in one of her classes there are only four women, and the class total is around 34 people. In any program, there are going to be differences in teaching style between the professors and the students at different learning levels, however, in aviation, the whole point of the program is to learn intricate details on how to become a pilot, so nothing goes wrong. However, in the program, there is a huge difference in teaching style between some of the flight instructors. In the fall quarter, Raven was at a disadvantage with her instructor. Raven made an important point in the interview, “Everyone goes at their own pace in the program and some people are ahead and some people are behind. But at the end of the day, the goal is to get your license but everyone’s learning pace is different. Some people grasp information better than other people but when you’re not actually practicing while flying, it leaves you even more behind at a disadvantage.” To summarize another point she made in the interview, mainly the instructors advocate for these students, but Raven got at a disadvantage with her flying instructor which has left her behind in flying time and understanding the concepts in the aviation program. Fortunately, this instructor got terminated after not giving multiple women enough hours of flying time. While Raven was flying, her instructor would get unnecessarily upset with her if she didn’t know something that he was supposed to teach Raven. Raven would advocate for herself and work hard to try and ask her instructor for flying time but never got it, whereas most of the men did. In the article by Pilot Institute, “Several studies have shown that female pilots tend to be judged more negatively when they make errors. More than sexist comments, separate studies have shown that female pilots are judged as being less competent.” This happened during Raven’s experience with her old flight instructor before he was terminated; now Raven has a better instructor and is catching back up in the program.
Raven is very upset because of the amount of money she must pour into the program for flying. This past fall quarter it was almost 18,000 US dollars and her tuition was almost wasted away because her instructor wouldn’t let her fly. Also, the same article from above states, “The standard flight training program is designed for male students, who comprise around 90% of any training group. As such, most flight instructors are also male. This can sometimes make it more difficult for female flight students to receive social support from their peers.” From what Raven and Hawk know, most of the women in the program have been kicked out.
Most recently, Hawk was banned from flying but is still allowed to do the basic ground school training, which is learning how to fly by not actually flying in a plane. How Hawk got kicked out of the program is the most unfair; to summarize, Hawk states she had an instructor swap and went from the best instructor to the worst instructor in the program. She flew with him twice and he hasn’t let her fly anymore (it’s been 2 ½ months). She was also put all the way back to lesson one when she was on lesson 7 with her previous instructor and had 12 hours to start solo flying. This put her at a great disadvantage in the program by leaving her behind. She gets questioned sporadically about topics that haven’t been taught to her yet. They asked Hawk a question and she didn’t know the answer to one and they said, “Maybe this program isn’t working out for you?” She got kicked out and now the aviation program has had no contact with them since. Raven and Hawk both have had poor experiences as well as many of their peers who are women. Even though CWU states there isn’t a bias between the men and women in the aviation program, there has been a clear disadvantage that I have heard and witnessed from my friends and their peers in the aviation program. On the Central Washington University website it says, “Central Washington University (CWU) is committed to providing a learning, working, and living environment that promotes personal integrity, civility and mutual respect in an environment free from sexual misconduct and discrimination on the basis of protected class.” There hasn’t been much of a mutual respect between the women and the aviation program. Raven and Hawk don’t know all of what happens in the aviation program; there could be other instances with other women that they don’t even know about. Raven is fearful now that she is going to get kicked out of the program because she was at a disadvantage with her poor instructor and is behind in the program now. A hypothetical solution is to not repeat these errors with other students; to work with students and not give up on them and completely cut contact with them. It sounds like there is a mixture of problems in the program by not advocating for their students and having a prejudice towards some of the women in the program.
If Central Washington University’s aviation program prides itself so much on finding success for its students, why don’t they try?
Sources:· https://www.cwu.edu/about/offices/civil-rights-compliance/equal-opportunity/index.php http://www.cwucrimsonandblack.com/story/nothing-but-blue-skies-ahead https://pilotinstitute.com/women-aviation-statistics/