My wife, an artist type who probably never opened the hood of a car and knew next to NOTHING about airplanes when she met me decided to do the PLL after I had flown with her for the first time. She did the PPL in 35 hours and from the 10th hour her landings were absolutely flawless. Later when we flew together she never used the GNS430 in the Warrior but preferred to fly with a map and her watch … she finds that “easier”.
I find the “size of brain” discussion useless and tiring, in this context anyway. Maybe that’s more interesting for her as a psychotherapist.
@Robert: I know very little about the Korean war, but Stalinist Russia had a strong tradition of female combat pilots, at least during WW2 and before and after. Nazi Germany boasted several women test pilots. Would it be a boon of democracy that women avoid the bigger risks?
For some examples, check
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentina_Grizodubova
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadezhda_Popova
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanna_Reitsch
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beate_Uhse-Rotermund
Nazi Germany boasted several women test pilots.
For me, the most remarkable of these was Melitta Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melitta_Schenk_Gräfin_von_Stauffenberg). Many of the devices she test flew, among them the bombsights for the “Stuka” dive bombers, were of her own design. Not even her Jewish ancestry nor the fact that her husband’s brother tried (and unfortunately failed) to kill Hitler made her lose her assignment.
Had the great fortune to meet the first two women in Switzerland who flew commercial jets. The first one was Ursula Bühler Hediger, a real lady and great person. She flew Lear Jets for the Swiss air rescue and was for years a flight instructor. I met her and had the honor of getting to know her before her untimely death of cancer a few years back. Susan Schmied was the first woman to reach first officer on an airliner, SE210 Caravelle for CTA. I still see her quite a lot as she is an instructor now at ZRH airport. And I had to pleasure to take some training with Regula Eichenberger, the first woman Captain in Switzerland. She started out in Crossair on the Saab 2000, went on to fly for TEA(737) and is now with Belair/Air Berlin on the Airbus after a few years on the 767, all as Captain. A great instructor and lovely person.
This one takes some doing… probably best not attempted at 150kt 
In the airlines “women in aviation” has become a non-issue as it should be and they just like the rest of us take the rough with the smooth.
The airport where I am based dose very well with respect to female pilots representing 5 or maybe 10 percent.
In fact my wife owns three aircraft and everytime she comes to the airfield she asks me to point them out to her
Sadly I get the impression this forum is very much male dominated and I think that’s a shame. So what coukd be done to attact more women into the industry.
I think you have to start very early. The thought that men are more technical minded than women is so deeply ingrained into western culture. But it’s just a cliche.
Start by giving little girls the same toys as boys: Toy cars, planes, tanks etc. Duplo/Lego can work wonders. Have them play flight sim games on the PC. Give them books about aviation. In summary: Do everything you’d naturally do for boys.
My little girl is one and a half years old. She already looks to the sky all the time, searching for “hub’rauber” (“helicopters”) and “fluchzeug” (“airplanes”)
Generally this topic is closely related to “how do you get more girls into STEM courses and jobs?”
My little girl loves airplanes and will often insist that we go to the runway end and watch them land. She was not so impressed by a visit to my plane in the hangar, but once in the cabin was more than happy to sit in the left seat and handle the controls. She is 2 1/2 and I very much hope she’ll get the aviation virus as badly as her dad. Frankly, that is why I hang on to my plane for now, to be able to take her flying. This has yet to happen but it will fairly soon (she has to understand enough not to take off her ear protectors for starters)
The women I do know who are pilots themselfs are usually great folk to be with. I’ve had the chance to fly with one of the first airline pilots during my IR training years ago and she was great as an instructor and person. If I think of AOPA opinion leaders such as Jolie Lucas or authors like Pia Bergqvist (whom I have had the luck to meet recently) then yea, I’d hope that some like them would join up here and elsewhere.
But I am not even sure we don’t have one or two femaile pilots in our membership. With the nick names it is sometimes difficult to tell, but I recall at least one speaking of a husband recently…
Clearly more women in aviation would help.
But, as most of the young guys noticed here, flying doesn’t look cool for a most girls so getting into flying is not something that crosses their minds.
Some things would help IMHO :
- speaking of aviation in less dramatic terms. When I talk about it, I try to do as I do for any other normal activity. Some go ride horses, other ride motorcycles, I ride planes and that’s it.
- insist on what is really positive in aviation : how do you explain the benefits of flying ?
- make aviation social places ( and forums) realy welcoming to everyone ( I mean a warm welcome to new people, whatever their looks, their age or anything) and less testosterone-smelling :)
Many in aviation like to dramatize it like if you don’t do this you will die etc… We need to think and act like normal people. When one goes boating or horse riding, he/she takes some precautions, takes some training and uses some equipment. Just like flying.
Women/anyone that get into aviation does so because they see the positive and less the negative. Let’s help the most do so.
It is one thing I like in some US YouTube pilots like Matt Guthmiller, they try to show that it is not that difficult to fly around.
