Bitching Betty
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Bitching Betty is the slang term some pilots and crew use when referring to the voice used on some onboard aircraft systems which provide audible spoken warnings.
Today, at least in aircraft systems, the annuciation voices may be either male or female, and in some cases, they can be selected according to the pilot's preferences. Thus, if the voice is female, it is referred to as Bitching Betty; if the voice is male, it is referred to as Bitching Bob.
There are two notable systems which today are normally found in most commercial and military aircraft, the TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System) and TAWS/EGPWS (Terrain Avoidance Warning System / Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System). These provide warnings and spoken (verbal) resolution instructions through the ICAS (Indication and Crew Alerting System).
There is usually an oral warning attention tone followed by verbal commands to the pilot/crew in the event that they are triggered. Probably most familiar to the average person is the famous "Pull up! Pull up!" that is encountered in many video games and a few movies.
Other spoken warnings are usually "Caution: terrain", "Windshear! Windshear!", or "Caution: traffic" followed by short directions on what actions the pilots should take to resolve the situation. The TCAS and TAWS/EGPWS are usually tied together to prevent them from giving the pilot poor instructions, such as telling them to "Descend! Descend!" to avoid another aircraft when the aircraft is close to the ground.
In more advanced cockpits on newer aircraft, there are several other warnings that may be spoken through the ICAS such as "Gear up. Gear up." These may be warnings or simply statements to augment the pilot's situation awareness.
The name "Betty" itself is an older term when it was a more popular traditional name in the American culture. It is not a derivation of the more recent use of the word "Betty" to describe an attractive female (in reference to Betty Rubble of The Flintstones).
As for the gender origins, early research in aircraft and other human factors areas indicated that female voices were more authoritative to male pilots and crew members and were more likely to get their attention. A lot of this research was based on pilot experiences, particularly in combat situations, where the pilots were being guided by female ground controllers. They reported being able to easily pick out the female voice from amid the flurry of radio chatter.
However, more recent research, and oddly enough, with more females working in aviation as pilots and ground controllers, indicates the previous hypothesis is in error. General human factors wisdom indicates that either due to current culture or changing attitudes, an automated female voice is no more or less effective than the male voice.
