Interesting points, all. I wonder where each of us would be now had we not had to cope with lack of encouragement, or too much encouragement in an unsuitable direction, when we were at school! I came from a family of aircrew (I'm the 3rd generation), and while I'd love my kids (one of each) to consider flying, I'd never shove it down their throats. It would be great to see them in music, or accountancy, or medicine, or family-raising, or whatever else they want to do - just so long as it is productive and satisfying for them. However, my own enthusiasms are likely to be fairly influential to them. I well remember enjoying my Dad's fantastic stories about his exploits in the Lightning when I was young (and some of the post-Happy Hour unrepeatable ones!). It would be crazy to suggest that his enthusiasm for his job didn't influence me. My Mum's music background gave me equal inspiration. Aviation won, but I still have great fun with music. It's perpetually disappointing to me that others weren't so well prepared for enjoying and making a fulfilling life.
However, there are real commercial problems when an employee decides that they want to follow two careers at once. Sally said: 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. There are real issues here, and they will surface wherever women wish to combine parenting with a career and demand (or are forced into) time off to achieve this. I don't have the answers, but I suspect that we do need to stop trying to convince everyone that they can do anything and everything they want to, and instead that we all need to accept compromise as part of life.
Still, enough of that. If you are female and want to be a pilot, welcome to the club! Give it all your attention and effort and you will no doubt find that, in most companies, prejudice is conspicuously absent. Good luck!