PD - thank you for having the capacity not to get offended about your post being expanded to encompass another subject.
Genghis -
(For that matter, my wife used to be president of the Women's Engineering Society - and if you think that women pilots have issues, try women engineers.)
That reminds me of a situation I experienced here in the US a few years ago. I had flown in to an airport in Maryland with a colleague. While there a woman came and introduced herself to me, explaining she was a mechanic (engineer) at the maintenance shop and was pleased to meet a woman pilot. We chatted for a while and then she went on her way. My colleague immediately assumed that she was trying to hit on me, because she was a mechanic and therefore, automatically,
must be a lesbian, which was in his eyes a very negative thing.
Pprune Pop -
As I (and Collins) see it fraternity is a "body of people united in aims and interests" a fraternity, a brotherhood, a sisterhood but a group of people sharing a common interest. Bringing sexist connotations into it is my view unfair and should have been said between bitten lips
Would you have a problem with using aviation "community", which has no connotation to either gender? Or if editors were to adjust articles in aviation magazines to use "they" instead of "him"? Or, dare I say it, "her" ....
Ian - I wish I could express myself even half as well as you do
PD - you ask what can be done.
For starters, I could go on & on with any number of anecdotes about situations where I have experienced sexist behaviour, but thats life, stuff happens, and I don't see that as being constructive to the discussion.
I would hope for a more positive effect. Perhaps by bringing this discussion up, maybe it will make one or two people a little more aware of how the community could be perceived by those not already involved, how one or two small things can be changed to help improve the chances of including and encouraging more more of the general public to become involved, and to stay involved, in aviation. In the longterm this strengthens and benefits the whole of aviation.
ps - I loved the photo you posted. Youse Ontarians are one tough bunch going swimming when there's lumps of ice floating around!