FAA Office of Aerospace Medicine
Civil Aerospace Medical Institute

Report No: DOT/FAA/AM-72/22

Title and Subtitle: A comparative study of female and male air traffic controller trainees

Report Date: May 1972

Authors: Cobb BB, Mathews JJ, Lay CD

Abstract: The study compares age, education, pre-FAA experience, aptitudes, training-course performance measures, and post-Academy attrition rates of the 83 women who entered basic air traffic control (ATC) training at the FAA Academy during November 1968 through March 1970 with those of various samples of the 3,760 males who entered training during the same period.

The study revealed no significant differences between the means of the female and male trainees with respect to age and educational level. When samples of the 83 females were compared with groups of male trainees in terms of performance on 36 different aptitude tests, only four mean differences, all of which favored the females, proved statistically significant.

Key Words: Air Traffic Controllers, Aptitudes, Personnel Selection, Attrition

No. of Pages: 24