so we are supposed to be hiring people based on competencies
Yes
Should we hire people who are exceptional but have childcare responsibilities - definitely, but that is not because they are of a certain gender , but because they have something to offer that any flexibility in the workplace is far outweighed by that person's appointment.
So 24x of more men are capable of flying a plane
There are a lot of professions which have skewed gender representation
Maybe men are more drawn to flying than women?
My daughter's Veterinary Science class has 4% male 96% female. the 4% were 2 blokes
Nursing these days remain predominantly female as is Early Childhood Education and teaching
Why is our equestrian club and every other equestrian club female dominated, whereas the model car club up the road from the horses are all boys.
I was deeply involved in amateur competitive snowsports as a parent
In any competition that I attended , the boys had almost double the starting number in any competition from junior >> senior >> national >> international
Bricklayers are predominantly male. Wierdly, no one is saying we should equalise that
Im pointing at strong biological factors which in some way and to some extent determine personal interest.
Thats not to say it should stay that way but is a reflection of many factors - personal interest is a major determinant. Nothing wrong with that.
Now the problem about diversity for diversity's sake is this:
If you want to engineer a social condition that pilots will be 50:50 M/F representation.
Lets say the intake you want is 500
There are 900 men and 100 women applicants..
Lets also say that each gender are equally represented in the ability you are looking for and the spread of ability is a Bell curve - half are above the mean and half below. That is to say men are no better at flying airplanes than women.
And so you pick on merit and you say you will only pick the ones above the mean
So approximately you will pick 450 men and 50 women.
Or do you say because of diversity requirements you pick all 75 of the women? If you did that you are now saying you are happy to reduce entry requirements for women just to tickbox "diversity". I would say then you are negatively affecting the overall ability of the pilot cohort.
I hope there is never going to be Diversity of ability
That the JL CEO is female is to be celebrated. Im assuming she got there by her own hard work and ability. Lets not increase diversity by reducing the meritocracy.