Originally Posted by
rickair7777
The problem is not fair access for women, it's lack of interest in the first place. Most of my male non-pilot friends always want to hear about aviation...none of the women ever do. Women who complain about low representation are using those statistics to promote misplaced sympathy and further unnecessary artificial advantage for themselves. Why is it a problem if women are just not interested in the field? It's a free country, do what makes you happy. I don't want somebody in aviation who's just doing it to make a statement.
Minorities are a different issue, they may be limited by socio-economic circumstances from pursuing an aviation career, which requires money and education. I still don't believe in affirmative action, but rather prefer to solve this problem at the root... improve early education quality and availability, and also outreach.
Whoa. So women may not be interested in aviation because women as a whole generally aren't, but socioeconomic conditions may be the reason minorities aren't interested in aviation? My BS detector is going off. Aviation careers are a lot harder for women to hold due to our patriarchal society, which is another huge holdup for recruiting women into this field. Who wants to invest the time and money into this career when you are floating the idea of having a family?
What if minorities just aren't interested because they are interested in other things as a whole, as women are? Or what if a poor white male really wants to be a pilot, but for the same socio-economic reasons he can't. So the poor black/purple/orange kid gets financial help and becomes a pilot but the poor white kid can't fulfill his dream? That insane argument is the root of a lot of the modern racism, which in 2015 should be gone from civilized societies. But the discrimination against the white male by modern day America sets us back several decades.
I agree with everything else you said, I just don't think anyone should get anything free/subsidized in this country based on skin color or gender. That form of discrimination breeds contempt and causes more problems than it solves IMO.