Abstract
The study investigates the ways in which Black female pilots experience and manage their elite status as airline transport pilots (ATPs) and as co-cultural group members. Accordingly, Orbe's (1998b) co-cultural theory is used as a frame to understand how women of color negotiate workplaces where White male cultural norms are omnipresent. Using a phenomenological approach, the communicative lived experiences of two Black female ATPs are analyzed to reveal specific co-cultural communication practices enacted. The study is offered here as a testament to engaged research-that which advances theory (i.e., extending co-cultural theorizing in a new setting) and provides pragmatic insight into important contemporary issues (i.e., increased diversity in a historically White male profession).