QNH1013
Why should we need to suspend disbelief?
To avoid plunging into the depths of social psychology and anthropology, let's say that society tends to conditions males and females into different roles and tends to set different role models for each gender.
This tends to set (unconscious)value based expectations and these can create beliefs about roles. I remember a couple of years ago that one poster on PPrune gloated that he loved doing sim rides with female pilots in one of the four engined jet transports so that he could watch them struggling with the (physical) demands of systems failures ... as this supported his view that the only place for them on an aeroplance was in the galley.
Flying is not the only place where symptoms of this can be seen, try senior management in most industries, for example.
Fortunately, there are many others who do not take this view, but my comment about suspending disbelief was just to point out that we should constantly challenge the assumptions that we make and look at the governing variables that we use to make sense of the world around us.
For example, it is a common view that females have poor spatial awareness: none of the ones that I fly with have, so let's suspend any disbelief founded on prior conditioning or experiene and deal with the individual in front of us.
As I said in my original posting, the female pilots I have flown with have taught me much of value, which was gained by keeping an open mind.
Sorry for the long winded explanation (not sure if you were winding me up), but this is an area where I have firm views.
Whirly has also made the point very well - female pilots have nothing to prove to the rest of us.
