Hello Whirlybird, nice to make your acquaintance! Don't you just love the way these threads get sidetracked....and get more interesting as well!
I'm happy to agree that times have changed for women in the western world. Since Lillienthal and Orville and Wilbur cast off the surly bonds we have been recognised as equal partners in aviation, if we want to be (think of Harriet Quimby), or if we are badly needed - having the skills needed to deliver Lancasters etc from the factory to the forward bases in WWII.
But possibly the key to the scarcity of our sex in this peculiar pursuit does lie in your conversation with the talented air cadet. Why would a girl want to grow up to be a bus driver, after all? The men who end up in the pointy end seem to make a terrible hash of their family relationships, and many end up with a rather jaundiced view of women.
We have quite an active junior section in our gliding club,about 20 boys and girls from 13 to l7. One girl is quite serious, solo at 16, works very very hard. Three boys have soloed at 16. But the differences I observe in the teenage students are the same that appear in adult beginners: females suffer from underconfidence, males from overconfidence. Result of conditioning since birth?