I accept that my story is not typical. My father is a pilot, my parents treated both my brother and I and with encouragement, whatever we wanted to do. I really believe that if I had wanted to be a hairdresser, they would have supported me as much as they are now (and you can imagine how pleased Dad is that I want to become a pilot despite absolutely no pressure from him).
Of my female peers, a significant number are already encumbered with families. Several of those were girls who professed ambition. Good luck to them; I was blessed with a good mother, and it is a role that requires more than a few months waddling and a few hours pain.
Maybe that is the difference. It’s OK for a guy to have obsessive ambition (how many autobiographies of successful guys include words to the effect that they saw little of their families?). It is less acceptable in a girl.
My uncle is a senior doctor. He says more there are women graduating from medical school than men. However, whereas male junior hospital doctors accept that their career demands 100% effort, the women expect time off for their families, expect their male colleagues to take up the slack and do not accept that a male colleague who has applied himself 100% to his career will advance faster than the girls.
That was a cautionary tale aimed at me. Put those two things together and we have the situation where:
- It’s an equal race at the starting block
- But you girls who recognise your biological destiny have to accept that the course becomes tougher for you (unless, apparently, you are a doctor)
Now, going back to Rob’s point (much more PC than mine), and bearing in mind that 90% of talk when you are a teenage girl is about boys and relationships and the inevitable outcome of those 2 in combination, is it surprising that many girls look at the potential task ahead of them and give up before it is started:
- take on the guys at their own game, on their home ground
- potentially raise a family at the same time
- don’t expect any extra rope
- have to be a tomboy (more of a man than the men) because otherwise you’ll be accused of using your feminine charms to your advantage
I’ve read some inspiring stories on PPRuNe written by women; look above this post on this thread for a couple. The only thing I regret is that they are particularly inspiring to me because I am a woman, rather than just a wannabe.