Till today, aircraft systems that could make military aviation more accommodating for women and encourage more of them to stay in service are still designed around men. Photos: AFP
As a helicopter pilot in Iraq in 2004, now-Senator Tammy Duckworth stopped drinking water hours before she climbed into the cockpit of her Army UH-60 Black Hawk for combat missions.
Even in Iraq’s heat, she’d purposefully dehydrate herself because there was not a safe way for her to use the restroom in her one-piece, zip-up flight suit. I would have to take off my side arm. I wore a shoulder holster, so I would have to take off my shoulder holster. Then I would have to take off my flight vest, my survival vest, then I would have to take off my body armor and then I would have to take off my flight suit in order to go to the bathroom, ” said Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat.
McClatchy exclusively reported this summer that of the military’s 48,000 pilots, only 3,300 were women and only 72 were Black. There are a multitude of reasons, including that the services did not open up flying roles to women until in the 1970s and did not allow women to fly in combat until the 1990s.
But even 25 years later, aircraft systems that could make military aviation more accommodating for women and encourage more of them to stay in service are still designed around men.
That’s starting to change. This summer, due in part to the uproar over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody, all of the service branches took a deeper look at the lack of race and gender diversity in their ranks.
By TARA COPP | MCCLATCHY WASHINGTON BUREAU Published: December 23, 2020 WASHINGTON (Tribune News Service) As a helicopter pilot in Iraq in 2004, now-Sen. Tammy Duckworth stopped drinking water hours before she climbed into the cockpit of her Army UH-60 Black Hawk for combat missions. Even in Iraq’s heat, she’d purposefully dehydrate herself because there was not a safe way for her to use the restroom in her one-piece, zip-up flight suit. “I would have to take off my side arm. I wore a shoulder holster, so I would have to take off my shoulder holster. Then I would have to take off my flight vest, my survival vest, then I would have to take off my body armor and then I would have to take off my flight suit in order to go to the bathroom,” said Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat.