Thanks Pandora, excellent post. Kipling is hereby proved correct.
Just wanted to move the debate along from us paying for our ancestors' injustices as Southwest seems to be.
The problem as you've pointed out is the training out of the initial disadvantage. It is also illustrated in the report, it here on ACN a couple of weeks ago, about accidents versus gender.
If memory serves, men take risks and get caught pushing their luck whilst women screw up mostly with fairly basic handling type accidents but without taking the same chances. The worrying thing is that only a tiny fraction of the licence holders were women!
The solution would perhaps, rather controversially, be a flight deck crew of mixed gender. A woman to make sure no risks are taken and a man to do the flying.
Seriously though, it does go back to the interest and effort put in by the individual and by the training they receive regardless of gender.
It's the difference between drivers, pilots and artists.
And back to the even playing field from the other perspective. Must feel awfully hollow, getting a job to fill up the numbers rather than being the best applicant!