Supramkiv,
Er ... yes ... I am a Chartered Accountant which requires a degree (any old degree and mine is Theoretical Physics) and a further three years on-the-job training plus another two to get the Practising Certificate. Exams each year (usually around 6) were for three hours, only 30% multi-guess, the rest being written and if you failed an exam you had to resit all of them (if you kept the job that as most failures got sacked). I hope on that basis, you think I may know a little of what I speak.
Quite simply the hardest thing I've ever done - and my brain was young and fit in those days. ATPL exams, compared to that, were a breeze. Voluminous, but a breeze.
The physical skill of flying I found difficult but then there is nothing comparable within the "professions" since they require intellectual ability only rather than a dextrous skill.
The point I am trying to make is the difference between "glamourous" and "respect and prestige". Whilst nobody, but nobody, is envious of my profession, I am regarded (bizarrely) as a pillar of the community; someone who can counter-sign money-laundering documents, legally sign a set of accounts etc.
In all honesty, most people just consider the $$$ signs when they hear what someone does for a living and that's what adds to the glamour, irrespective of what's required to achieve that position. But I do not think that, academically, a pilot's qualification is even near that of a decent degree.
The original point, (which was a flippant one) and my retort (which was even more flippant until some young thing took umbrage) is that I don't think aviation is prestigious nor, in my case at least, do all women "dig" pilots
Cheers
Whirls