That is unfortunately true. If Amelia Rose inspires any women to fly, that's great, but the real barriers are more about what you describe than a lack of awareness.
Thanks for your understanding. I will say to other women who run into the kinds of obstacles (or should we say headwind here?) that I encountered, if you are truly motivated to fly, if it is a real passion of yours, you will get beyond whatever sexist BS you encounter along the way. The people who say the kind of things that make you want to run do not represent the majority view. Keep that in mind, always.
It's interesting, too, the kind of people who espouse such views. One might think it's the older pilots, but in general (caution: dangerous generalities ahead!), I have found the older crowd to be much more supportive. Some of the most sexist comments I have encountered have come from much younger pilots, perhaps because they view being a pilot as such a macho thing, that if a woman flies, it somehow takes away from that. Their loss.
A couple of years ago, when I had just started flying, I attended the AOPA convention in Hartford, because I got free tickets to it and it was close. At the time, I had only two hours of flight in my logbook. So I would go up to people at the various booths, and inevitably they would ask me what I fly and how many hours I had. I was embarrassed at first to even answer, but then I realized how supportive so many of these people were, and many of them were older men. I particularly remember one man, who upon hearing me say, "I'm not a real pilot, I've just started," said: "You're a pilot. You're a student pilot, but a pilot nonetheless." Whenever I think about that, I smile. It's people like that who keep you going through all the nonsense. And it's people like that who represent the future hopes of general aviation. People who are happy to share their knowledge, who have no political/psychological agenda, people who just want more people to become pilots, because they love what they do and want more people, men and women, to share the joy.
So ladies, for those of you who have encountered some obnoxious attitudes (like one of my former CFIs, who used to say upon hearing a woman on the radio, "Another girl pilot, it's getting dangerous out here!"), take heart: most men want you to succeed. And those who don't, well, they're not worth your time. And, in any case, the naysayers are irrelevant, because you know what you want to do, and know what it takes to get there. Now just do it, and stop listening to the useless chatter!
