Minorities and Women in Naval Aviation Training: A Look Back at a 1997 Study

Abstract

In 1997, Navy leadership expressed an interest in understanding what barriers were faced by minority and women aviators and what organizational factors might lead to success in aviation training. A historical review was done of past and recent research, and interviews and focus groups were conducted of students, trainers, and leadership in the aviation training community. Several key findings are discussed regarding that 1997 effort, including that prior exposure to aviation helps in the training process, that grading is perceived as too subjective, and that discrimination and tokenism are concerns in aviation. Recommendations include providing flight experience early and creating written materials that are deemed useful to survive aviation training, increasing the number of minorities and black in flight instructor positions (ensuring that flight instructor is not seen as a career ending position), and making grading systems more subjective.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 28, 2011
Accession Number
ADA539101

Entities

People

  • Paul Rosenfeld
  • Zannette A. Uriell

Organizations

  • Navy Personnel Research, Studies, and Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aircrafts
  • Attrition
  • Biomedical Research
  • Discrimination
  • Ethnic Groups
  • Flight Training
  • Gender Discrimination
  • Instructors
  • Military Research
  • Minority Groups
  • Naval Aviation
  • Naval Personnel
  • Organizational Structure
  • Prejudice
  • Students
  • Urban Areas
  • War Colleges

Readers

  • Military Leadership and Professional Education.
  • Naval Personnel Management
  • Systems Analysis and Design