yes, it actually was my sex status that helped me to achieve my stellar regional career.
Originally Posted by
⌐ AV8OR WANNABE
… You’re probably a great pilot but you should reach your goals like everyone else
i'm not sure if i'm misunderstanding your post... did I say before that i didn't or don't want to reach my goals like everyone else..?? because.. i have.. and i do.. 
I don’t think she’s discounting herself, I think she’s being realistic… You have an idealistic view of this profession idealistic view would be me, at age 30, in the right seat of 747 for delta...how ideal 
.. or would that be realistic in your definition since i'm a woman and thus would receive preferential hiring?but once hiring resumes again soon enough you’ll realize that some people have better chances than others and it’s not necessarily due to their skills or their experiences… my point was not that she was wrong about herself, just that she was putting herself down unnecessarily. i did say that she might well have gotten in JUST because of her sex... but its also a possibility that she was qualified in the recruiters' opinion, period (because she WAS experienced, not like she was some newbie). why you were hired or not is something you would never know for sure unless the hiring board itself told you so. so my question to her was why undermine yourself by saying "oh i only got hired because i was a female." i think this is where men and women differ - you would almost never hear males say something disparaging about themselves whether its true or not. (self deprecating jokes are a different story because you know the joker doesnt actually mean it.)
yes i do see that some people have better chances than others that have nothing to do with flight qualifications. family, friends, neighbors, golf buddies, fraternity association, sex, race, pure luck and timing, tallness (apparently tall people are more successful in general), etc. etc. there's no end to it. yes even young people like me can clearly see this. and it sucks, because i havent a single family or buddy in the majors to rope me in, but whats the point of whining about a mere fact of life that is nepotism?
If you honestly think that they it’s a level playing field out there now then why don’t you agree that we should scrap the affirmative action all together? you can scrap if for all i care, i never asked for it! I mean, you’re not ‘special’ anymore, right? ...or do you want to feel like you did it all on your own but also get some extra help just in case? 
PS. Good discussion...
dude, i sense an argumentative tone here... i may be wrong, but it seems like you think that i am all for AA... i am quite unsure why this argument is even taking place because i never mentioned AA??? I DID say that I never expected special treatment.... but rather, its the guys around me who expect that i get special treatment. thats just the part that really annoys me, i mean i'd understand the snide and bitter comments if i were hired by some major at my current qualifications instead of sitting in the seat right next to them. yeah i might flash a flirty smile at a ramper to help us get that much-needed lav service, and that smile might not work had it come from a burly male pilot, but these days thats probably as far as the power of my sex goes.
i never thought or said that it's a level playing field... unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on who you know) its not and never will be for all the reasons above and probably a 100 more that is beyond my realm of reasoning. i do think however that the united-style hiring is never going to happen again due to the fact that there are a LOT more women in aviation now than even 5, 10 years ago.
the whole reason why i even responded in this thread was because hotmama mentioned that its wrong that women expect the sex card - my response was that most women DONT even expect that. so whether the expectation is right or wrong is all a nonissue to begin with.