From an instructor's point of view, I have trained female pilots in the recent years and have had a few good female students learn how to fly the airplane. I currently have one female student that always shows up on time, complains about the homework I give her, but shows up prepared and ready to learn. Though she has not flown the airplane by herself yet (pre-solo) she is making good progress. I just need her to get confident about her landings.
Ahh.... but here comes the flip-side of the coin. I have another female student who has changed flight schools and instuctors alot and wants to become an airline pilot. She always shows up late to her lesson, unprepared, and will ask me if it is okay to bring her 12 year old daughter in the back seat from time to time. One time we had to wait for her to apply her lip-gloss before lokking at the checklist on how to start the airplane. I am still mentoring her because I am a very patient person and she likes me for that. However I think she realizes that she needs to marry a rich man and then fly on the side for fun. ( More power to her because I am trying to find a rich girl that will allow me to fly on the side for fun)!
But all kidding aside my second student that I described is not the person you want to be. That just plays into the sterotypes that some older men might have. The first student that I dealt with is usually the norm that I have seen so far for most girls. Very studious and diligent in the aeronautical knowledge area, however sometimes doing the dirty work of a crosswind landing can be a little overwhelming in some cases because of lack of confidence.
That's my story and I'm sticking too it.