US: FAA committee recommends a pivot to gender-neutral terminology

An FAA advisory committee recommended this week that the agency replace words and phrases like “airman” and “man-made” with gender-neutral terms like “aircrew” and “manufactured” as part of an effort to set a more inclusive tone. The recommendations were part of a report released on Wednesday, drafted by the agency’s Drone Advisory Committee to refresh the language used in the drone industry, but with the hope that the wider aviation world might also adopt the terms. The updated language would help reduce intentional or unintentional bias while reflecting a “more modern recognition that gender can be nonbinary,” the report says. The committee convened a task force made up of members representing labor, airports, local government and aviation to replace gender-specific language in the drone industry that might serve as a model for the rest of aviation.<br/>“As it grows and matures, the drone industry has an opportunity to use and embrace gender-neutral language that defines it as an industry that is respectful, welcoming and brings value to the receiver,” the committee wrote. The set of recommendations is part of a broader initiative to bring more women into aviation, said Trish Gilbert, co-chair of the task force and executive vice president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. When Gilbert started working as an air traffic controller in 1989, only 16% of people who worked in her field were women. Today, that number is 16.8%. “The needle has not moved much,” she said, adding that she hoped adopting the new terms would help make aviation more inclusive to women and other underrepresented groups.<br/>