"It cannot be right that only 4% of women are registered commercial pilots"
Erm...why not?!
It is a simple fact that most pilots are plane geeks, and most plane geeks are men! Most nurses, social workers and primary school teachers are women, because women are caring and nurturing by nature. Is that wrong as well?!
Equality does not mean that every job in every walk of like must be represented 50/50. Where does it stop? "Your company must be made up 50/50 of women, ehtnic minorities, the over 50's..." All equality means is that people should not be discriminated against because of their age, sex, or race, and as far as I can tell the airlines do not operate a 'no women' policy!
The only real discrimination in the airline industry today, therefore is that it is elitist. Essentially, if you don't have access to about £90k to train, then you are going to struggle.
If Vince and his MP cronies actually did care about young people, they would make funding more readily available to train or make it more financially viable to offset costs at an early stage via tax breaks. Of course, the chances of that are about as likely as people understanding what 'equality'is really about...