Hello Hannah,
I am a female Student pilot learning in a male dominated club, and there are only three female pilots, all of us students! For much of my time with the club, I ahev been the only female member.
I am learning to fly purely as a hobby (although I may decide on a career change to instruct, but thats further down the line!) Its been my ambition to learn to fly and all the chaps in the club have been really welcoming (well, except one old duffer).
I think the chaps tend to respect female pilots if they are willing to muck in with EVERYTHING. As Taybird says, with cleaning aircraft, refuelling, checks, cleaning and opening the hangar etc. Also, form my perspective, I am willing to learn from ANYONE and I will privately filter out anything which i think is gung ho etc.
I also have worked all my career in a male dominated environment and as Margaret Thatcher said (and I love this quote, sorry you non-Thatcherites) she said that for a woman to get on in a man's world, we have to be twice as good as the men....and I tend to agree.
I think maybe perhaps females think that aviation is a male area only. The problem is that there are so many ingrained issues in the minds of both men and women that they will take a long time to resolve.
two true brilliant stories from the ATA. One, female spitfire pilot had to make a forced landing in a field of cows....she stayed INSIDE her aircraft as she preferred taking her chances with the possibility of an exploding fuel tank, rather than take her chances with the cattle!
The other, a female |ATA pilot landed a Lancaster at an airfield, the chaps surrounded her and asked where the pilot was...she replied that she was the pilot and they were all amazed that she could ahve handled such a large aircraft!
Well, hope that helps, and good luck wth the project. PM me if you want to know anything more.
GQ