Female Student Experience in a Male-Dominated Aviation Program

Abstract

Traditionally, a number of academic disciplines have been notoriously associated with a maledominated environment, notably in Science, Engineering, Technology and Mathematics (STEM). This male-dominated educational environment inevitably affects the learning experience of female students. The present paper examined the learning experience of female students in an Aviation program in Australia where significant increase of female students was achieved in a five-year period, jumping from a 13% representation in 2013 to over 22% in 2018. Through a survey to 53 Aviation female students, the perception of being a female, the learning experience, and the female-specific learning support in a maledominated educational environment are elucidated. The findings revealed that the concerns associated with being a female and female underrepresentation in the Aviation programs were sometimes recognised among female students. Additionally, there were three categories of experience associated with female students in a male-dominated educational program. Some of the negative experience was around sexual harassment from male leaders, depreciation from lecturers and male fellow students and perception of inferiority. The negative experience resulted in undesirable impact on female students’ wellbeing, the formation of defensive behaviour and actions, and a though of school leave. The positive experiences included a certain “feminist righteousness”. Interestingly, a great proportion of surveyed female students reported neutral experience, claiming that gender-based interventions in Aviation educational environment indeed aggravate gender discriminations in the field. The respondents also assessed general support, gender-based support and mentoring programs for female students in a maledominated environment. Support sourced from staff and university was evaluated very positively among female students, followed by assistance among cohorts. With regards to gender-based support, the increase of social and professional associations, together with the improvement of female voices in leadership positions were argued. Finally, in mentoring programs, a gender-equality perspective was expected for mentors and experiential learning was recommended to guide the program design. Contributions of this study lie in the areas of learning experience and feminist educational support.