flower,
I think we're in agreement as to the problem, just not about the solution. And agreeing to differ is fine with me - nice to meet someone on PPRuNe who doesn't turn every minor disagreement into a flame war.
I've followed numerous posts concerning women in aviation on PPRuNe over the years, on various topics, and they almost always follow this pattern:
1) Posts 1 - 10/20/30 ........The posts stay fairly on topic, whatever it is.
2) Mr Prejudice finds the thread, no matter where it's hiding, even on a forum he never normally reads. He posts something which is superficially on topic, but actually saying that women can't and shouldn't be pilots. This is probably irrelevant to the topic under discussion anyway.
3) Several women argue with Mr Prejudice, sometimes heatedly. They start to realise it's a waste of time, when...
4) Mr Windup finds the thread, and...er... winds everyone up.
5) Despite being urged to ignore Mr Windup, several people get wound up.
6) Ms Head-in-the-Sand pops up and says she's never encountered any prejudice in aviation. But she asks us nicely to shut up, in case we all annoy the guys - we've gotta play the game haven't we.
7) Mr Patronising tells us to be good little girls and shut up; there's been positive discrimination for the last 100 years; it's just that we're taking everything the wrong way and being stupid, but he'd expect that.
8) Mr Nice Guy finds the topic, and reminds everyone that women have been flying for a number of years, that some of them are Very Good, and that they EVEN become Captains on airliners and fly for the military!!!!! Mr Nice Guy would be appreciated, except for the fact that you can almost hear the "Wow, isn't that amazing, aren't they clever" in his post.
9) Mr Biology-is-Destiny decides to bring in genetics, families, kids, maternal instincts, and all that kinda stuff. PPRuNe gives a collective yawn. I always wonder why it never occurs to anyone, including the government, that kids are BOTH parents' responsibility.
10) By this point most female pilots have got bored or despairing of the human race, and probably gone flying. Aircraft do what they're asked to do, behave logically, and are unprejudiced. Some of us like them better than men. Need you ask why?
11) The thread degenerates, the original topic long gone, and the people it was relevant to doing something more important and interesting.
12) The moderator closes it.
I'm off on holiday tomorrow, so let's hope this particular thread will prove me wrong. I'm not sure I'll have Internet access, so I'm leaving it anyway.