Submitting Campus

Daytona Beach

Student Status

Graduate

Class

Graduate Student Works

Advisor Name

Dr. Haydee Cuevas

Abstract/Description

In the past 90 years, the workforce has been diversified in many fields yet gender diversity for occupations in the aviation domain (e.g., pilots, air traffic controllers, aircraft maintenance technicians) has grown slowly. To explore this issue, the objective of this archival study was to examine the increase in the number of females and males from 2005 to 2018 for six aviation occupations in the private sector (civilian) in the United States: aircraft pilot and flight engineer; air traffic controller and airfield operations specialist; aerospace engineer; avionics technician; aircraft mechanic and service technician; and aircraft structure, surfaces, rigging, and systems assembler. Data were obtained from the American Community Survey using Public Use Microdata Sample from the United States Census Bureau. Results revealed females still comprise a very small percentage of the total workforce across aviation occupations. Change across the years was shown to be more erratic for females, compared to males. Further research is warranted to investigate the underlying causes for these erratic trends in the female aviation workforce in order to help solve the severe labor shortage affecting the entire aviation industry. Keywords: aviation, diversity, gender, labor shortage

Document Type

Article

Publication/Presentation Date

3-2-2020

Location

Daytona Beach, FL

Additional Information

The views herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the organizations with which the authors are affiliated. Portions of this paper were presented at the 2020 National Training Aircraft Symposium (NTAS). This research was partially supported through Embry Riddle Aeronautical University’s Faculty Innovative Research in Science and Technology (FIRST) Program.

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