I had some thoughts, and some sleep, and came back....
Firstly, that word "fraternity". I think you'd all agree that the main purpose of writing is communication. Well, when I saw the title of this thread I just assumed it was another thread along the lines of a few others we've had in the past like how to get the wife interested in flying. Frternity means brotherhood. It's male-orientated by definition. It has those connotations. So I'm sorry, Pilot DAR, and I love the sentiments, but as a writer I've got to tell you that Community would have been far better.
Secondly, as to the sentiments expressed in that first post. Well, I'd love it if they were all true, and I've met some lovely people in aviation. But I've also met some downright sods too. Just like the rest of the world in fact. Maybe take off your rose-coloured spectacles. On second thoughts, don't - until someone else does it for you. Why be as old and cynical as I am.
Next, Whirls' comment that sexism seems to exist mainly in fixed-wing aviation. Well, Whirls my friend, if that's your experience, who am I to argue with it? But I wonder if it isn't that it's commonest among the general public, less so in private aviation, and almost non-existent in commercial aviation. Which could explain why I get mistaken for the tea lady when doing helicopter trial lessons, ignored and then apologised to when flying to a fly-in with a male passenger, but treated with the utmost respect in the commercial flying world. And when I went to interview Kirsty Moore, first female Red Arrows pilot, for an article, and sat in on one of their briefings, I was impressed by the fact that she was treated no differently from anyone else. I shouldn't have to be impressed, but I was, because it's still so rare. The forces are super-professional - and non-sexist. So are younger men, which could explain my GA versus commercial flying experience...but I don't know. But anyway, actually all any of us women want is to be treated 'normally' - not better, not worse, not the same, not differently, just normally. That's what I originally liked about the BWPA - that's how it was; I was just a pilot, not a woman pilot, not great, not awful, not a minority, not anything to write home about, but just someone who could merge into the background. It's the reason I'm still a member. It would be nice if they didn't need to exist, but well...they seem to provide something for nearly 400 women. Got to be a reason. Don't tell me we just like paying subs for the fun of it.
Finally, Mary Meagher, things have changed. Women no longer have to choose between career and family. The reasons for the minority of women in aviation are more somplicated and subtle than that. Let me leave you with a conversation I had just a few years ago with a 16 year old pilot, an Air Cadets high flyer, who soloed in minimum hours and for whom a great future in aviation was predicted...
Me: Why are there so few girls in the air cadets.
Her: Well, it's a boy thing isn't it?
Me: But why?
Her (shrugging): Just is.
Well, now I know...