not posted anything for a while, but the petty squabbling going on here needs a reply.
Do I have a problem with female pilots? , No, provided they make the grade. However I am sure there is plenty of positive discrimination going on, I've seen it in may industries whilst they try to get their PC quotas right. After a while the balance becomes OK and sanity returns or the companies realise it can't be achieved and give up.
PC assumption, 'men and women are the same with the same abilities'. FACT this is not so. most of the comments in this thread highlight what they see as their genders strong points, often exactly the points the other gender sees as their weak points AND YOU CAN'T SEE IT!
If you look at some other industies, lets take engineering, Female engineers are few and far between. The Engineering council has tried all kinds of ways to get girls into engineering, including blatant discrimination. Result, the Engineering Council says the drive was basically a failure, girls are basically not interrested in engineering as a job. However the few that are there are normally there because they want to and hence tend to be quite good. A lot of blokes in engineering are there because its a job they can do, it comes naturally and hence may aren't well motivated. Sound like aviation?
Other differences, illuded to in other postings, how do the genders respond to crises/ pressure/ failure. Generlisation girls cry blokes come out fighting. I've experinced both when the chips are down. The problem that a lot of the posts here point to is that in a safety critical application the fighter will survive, fly the plane until its on the deck where as the tears approach accepts defeat and death. Now the women reading this are probably about to skin me alive but what they- you- need to realise is that is how the men see it. It is also very true that men do not know how to handle women bursting into tears in a proffessional environment if they don't get their own way. Not many women equals little experinece of handling them
, so faced with all the very real possibilities of discrimination claims etc men give in and go for the easy option, also looks good for quotas etc.
I personally work with a few women, most good one or two not good. Which ones do I and my male colleagues prefer to work with? The ones who will join in the banter, not get all PC or put in a complaint if they think you've overstepped the mark slightly but would rather give as good as they get. I suspect that the majority of the female posters here are in this catergory, you seam quite good at giving. However, if you get a women who is known to file complaints about harassment at the drop of a hat its like having an icy gale in the room (one women I know filed a formal complaint because a male colleague farted near her). If you get an unkown women, men tend to be very cautious until they know what camp that women is in. Given this situation, fuelled larely by fear of harassment/preudice complaints is it surprising that some very reasonable guys say they prefer to fly with other blokes?