maxalt, I cannot believe that those events happened. The vast majority of female pilots would not dream of using something like that. BUT...and its a big but... you are actually putting down men in your post, as you are inferring that they would actually go outside of CAA guidelines to get a female through a sim check, and go outside of employment guidelines to promote a woman ahead of a man.
If this is the case, then perhaps the tactics of men who are in a position of "power" should be examined more thoroughly.
As for the maternity issue, well, in the USA a female pilot took her employer to court, because she wanted to work during pregnancy (after the first 3 months) and wasn't allowed to. I believe that women pilots in America are now allowed to fly whilst pregnant provided they have consent from their Doctor.
However, let's take worse case scenario. I believe the average number of children per women is now less than 2. So lets say, worse case, the pilot has 2 children.
I would guess that it takes at least a month to confirm that a woman is actually pregnant. During that month the woman flies.
The woman is then grounded for 2 months due to the high radiation affecting the development of the child. After that she is medically fit and could fly an aircraft if the regulations allow.
Obviously closer to the actual birth she will be off for a couple of months. Lets say worst case, she is off for 1 year per child. That is only 2 years in a career of 30 or 40 years. No doubt the low cost carriers could only pay statutory maternity leave if they so desired. Now I know for a fact that an airline can cope with at least 20 less pilots - the airline I work for is not a low cost carrier but operates with less crews per aircraft than LCCs. In my airline pregnant pilots are assigned other duties, on the ground, so they are doing a job that the company would have to pay for.
So its most likely to be around 8 months off, doing a different job, with maybe a pay difference of £20k per year. So we are talking maybe £13k for one child, £26k for two.
My company spent £60k on days off payments this year, because it couldn't roster sufficient pilots to cover for sickness, delays, etc.
Not to mention the fact that we have a number of (male) pilots off sick with other health issues.
So is this really such a big issue????
And if men don't agree with women working as pilots then taking maternity leave, I take it they are happy with their own wives never having children, or if they do, giving up their jobs?