Why so few girls?
Because despite what many people think, prejudice is alive and well in aviation to a huge extent. And I should know. I was over 40 when I started flying; I'd travelled the world, done all sorts of things, and it wasn't a second career for me - must have been about the sixth. And I coudn't believe the way things were. OK, for those who don't realise, let me take you through it.
You're female, you walk into a flying school. About the first thing you notice is that there are so few other women there, if any. Someone asks you what you want, and is really really surprised that you say you want to learn to fly.
You start your PPL. You're probably the only woman on the course. Even if you're not underconfident and untechnically minded, everyone expects you to be. You mention that you're thinking of going commercial; everyone is astounded. In my case I thought is was because of my age - but no, it was because I was female; men older than me thought of a career change, and no-one turned a hair. Everyone wonders where on earth you got the money. Was it from your parents, or your husband? Because you can't possibly have earned it all yourself; women don't get those sort of jobs do they?
You start to hourbuild. You take male passengers with you to other airfields. Everyone assumes your passenger is the pilot. You get comments such as "Oh, do you really fly" so often that they become normal. If you and a male friend share flying, everyone assumes the good landings were his, and the bad ones yours.
You go to CPL/ATPL groundschool. You're still the only female on most courses. If you've got this far, you probably don't care by now. In fact, by now everyone's telling you how wonderful you are, for doing the same things the guys are doing. You're not wonderful, you think, just normal. You just happen to have different bumps and appendages. And maybe slightly different abilities, but hey, flying isn't that difficult; most people who want to do it can, so who cares.
Why so few girls? Because, in summary, things haven't changed much in the nearly 100 years since since the Wright brothers first took to the air. And who in their right mind wants to put up with all that? Most of the things I've mentioned above happened to me; the ones that didn't happened to friends of mine. And please, don't give me that crap about women looking after the kids; when will everyone, including the government, realise that kids are the responsibility of BOTH parents.
I used to think I'd been born 20 years or so too early. Now I think maybe it was more like 200 years. Or maybe I'm still being hopeful. Maybe things will never change.