What I am finding weird from this discussion that it is becoming apparent that schools and various social pressures do all they can (or at least they did in my case) to stop girls having any ambition at all and then companies (not just in aviation) have to spend a lot of effort trying to entice girls to apply for the job. Once the girl (now a woman) is esconced in the job she is once again put off doing the job by the pressure on her from her company if she decides to have a child. It is a hard line to tread and consequently a lot of girls go for the easy life of a 'bank or check out girl'. However it is a simple fact of life that if every woman gave up having children in order to work, the human race would come to a very abrupt end. However it is also true that if every woman gave up working full stop to have children the country would probably run into serious financial trouble (think of all those old women with no pensions of their own relying on the state once their husband has died). So we need women to work, but we also need women to keep our families in running order.
How this is going to be encouraged is beyond me. I can only say I received absolutely no support from my school regarding any career. All of the nuns thought we would make lovely mothers, and jobs were only for boys. And since this was an all girls school, jobs and career advice were not on the agenda. My mother was very supportive, but she wanted me to be a professional showjumper (her own childhood dream).