Hello, I'm male and fly helicopters (offshore North Sea) so don't have exactly the perspective you're hoping to hear from... However I did career change to start flying training mid-30s (also my 2nd full career change) with all the commensurate worry that brings, so have some empathy with your situation and my story may (or may not) be of relevance.
I also completely understand how rare it is to be considering changing career in your 30s - just about everyone I knew was genuinely astonished that I did it (I turned down the next promotion to do it for a start). Realistically though, a big reason so few people do it is that by then so many are tied down with mortgages, marriage, kids etc.
When I found myself in a position (around 2007) where it began to dawn on me that shifting career to my 'dream' job could potentially be done, I worked the numbers (ie £) to death, weighed up the risks and even then (when things were on a huge high for zero-hour pilots) I decided that the risk was 1 I would only take (bearing in mind the age factor) if I could get myself onto a 'tagged' scheme with an integrated FTO.
My reasoning was 1) getting 'tagged' up front was the only acceptable level of risk I could afford 2) going modular would mean I'd be even older when I qualified 3) my job was way too busy for me to fit modular studies / training in and 4) whether anyone agrees with it or not, my personal judgement was that I'd get better results going integrated. Just explaining my decision-making - not trying to pass judgement
Anyway, I found the age thing interesting, hence this post. For all the 'equal opportunities' BS that companies claim to comply with, I found that when I got to final interview for tagged schemes it was always the younger guys who got picked. It wasn't until the 7th scheme I applied for (and my 4th final interview stage) that I managed to play the game adeptly enough to get a place on their scheme.
At the time I knew full well that my previous experience (management positions in 2 different industries), my age, my confidence etc etc were all playing against me big-time because airlines are looking for co-pilots not people who think they're already Captains (and rightly so). By being older, more experienced, more confident etc I had quite a job convincing them of this. (Incidentally it has worked out fine in reality, for all the play-acting required at interview
)
So, after waffling on (sorry) - I think your gender is as likely to play in your favour as against (depends who's interviewing you) but my personal opinion regarding the age aspect hasn't changed - I would still be looking to get tagged or (I think in the current economic conditions particularly) you're taking an immense risk. My apologies if that is purely 1 person's opinion but you did ask
I have succeeded in making the switch but I am under no illusions at all that I have been INCREDIBLY lucky.
And on that note, I wish you the very best of luck whatever you decide to do. I for one would be interested to hear how it pans out for you.
BM
PS - art of flight: I fully agree