Female pilot accident rates

" wrote

I like to fly, but I daresay I don't have whatever it takes to fly an
F-14 in carrier operations. But then, *statistically*, you don't
either. Very few people do.

From a former Naval Aviator.
Being an excellent fighter pilot and landing on an aircraft carrier
is much different than flying jetliners from JFK to ORD.
It's all about "Spatial Orientation", a trait that the Navy tested
for extesively during the training process.

I have posted this previously....here it is again.


The Brain, Richard Restak, M.D.

Based on the PBS Series, "The Brain"


Brain-Sex Differences: Are They Real?

Men generally have better spatial function
than women. This refers to the ability to
mentally visualize and maneuver objects
within three-dimensional space. But among
men who don't produce the male sex hor-
mone testosterone, spatial abilities are poorly
developed. According to Harvard neurolo-
gist Norman Geschwind, "It is very impor-
tant to stress that there are women who
have absolutely superb spatial function and
there are plenty of men whose spatial func-
tion is abysmal. But on the average, men
have better spatial function than women.
One practical consequence involves the dif-
ficulties some people experience in the
immediate discrimination between right and
left. In one study twice as many women as
men reported "frequent" problems in rap-
idly deciding about right-left issues (turning
right at a fork in the road, quickly respond-
ing when asked to raise the right or left
hand, and so on).
Other areas in which brain-sex differ-
ences play a prominent but by no means
exclusive role include:
Language facility. Females generally
speak earlier, learn foreign languages more
easily, and outperform males in tests of
verbal fluency.
Fine hand control. From an early age,
rapid sequential movements are performed
better by girls, who, as a result, exhibit
better penmanship than boys of the same
age.
Mathematical ability. Studies among
mathematically gifted students reveal that
males outnumber females among the supe-
rior achievers. According to Johns Hop-
kins researchers Camilla Benbow and Julian
Stanley, "We favor the hypothesis that sex
differences in achievement in and attitude
toward mathematics result from superior
male mathematical ability, which may in
turn be related to greater male ability in
spatial tasks."
Dyslexia, stuttering, delayed speech, au-
tism, hyperactivity...each of these neuro-
behavioral disorders occurs with greater
frequency in males.
Although the above sex differences are
well established, no one has as yet convinc-
ingly demonstrated an anatomic difference
between the brain structures of human
males and females. These behavioral differ-
ences may be the result of chemical changes
in brain function resulting from the influ-
ence of sex hormones in early prenatal
development.



Bob Moore