A Comparative Study of Male and Female Future Pilots Career Start

The goal of this work is to examine what motivates young males and females to choose a profession of pilot. 22 interviews were conducted to compare their motivations, attitudes towards profession, career expectations and attitudes of others. Results highlight that the trajectories of how maleand female future pilots came to aviation and university in particular does not differ a lot. Usually, what motivates them to go to this profession is either family dynasty or hobby. Both men and women have the same image of who is a pilot and what personal characteristics a person applying for that job has. Unattractive factors as results demonstrate are the same for students of both genders and include health-related issues, irregular schedule and for some students absence of creativity and high brain activity. As for attractive factors, female future pilots named beauty and romance of profession, opportunity for travelling around the world, while male respondents added high salary and prestige and stability of this job to this list. As for career expectations, all of the interviewed people said they would like to continue flying after graduation. While some of them are going to become commercial pilots, others would prefer to leave aviation as a hobby. Finally, analysis of others’ attitudes towards choosing a career of pilot demonstrated that male and female are treated differently. Even though the number of women rises each year and new heights are achieved by them, there are still stereotypes that are translated by both aviators and especially non-aviators.