Less than one in five thousand

[Jim Logajan]

A minority of a minority yields a mighty small number - in this case, women pilots in the U.S.
Excluding student certificates, less than 28,000 out of 150,000,000 women have earned a pilot certificate. Less than 1 in 5000.

Statistically speaking, of the two dozen some pilots I've personally met, there was only about a 1 - 0.9998^24 chance (~0.5%) that one would be a woman. Strange indeed then that two were women. Wonder if that luck would work for me if I bought lottery tickets?

 

[Jim Logajan]

Oops. Used the wrong population. Five percent of pilots are women so the probability of meeting one in a group of 24 pilots is 1 - .95^24, which is about 71%. Now I remember why I avoid betting on games of chance.

 

[Jim Logajan]

I knew the 1 in 5,000 wasn't right. Five percent is about what I would expect based on observation.

Actually the 1 in 5000 claim is right (it is closer to 1 in 5,464 but I rounded). How I figured the basic numbers (excluding student pilots, and using FAA figures for 2010):

508,469 pilots registered in the U.S. out of ~300,000,000 people.
27,451 female pilots registered in the U.S. out of ~150,000,000 females.

508,469/300,000,000 = 0.17% of people are pilots (1 in 590 people.)
27,451/508,469 = 5.4% of pilots are female (1 in 19 pilots.)
27,451/150,000,000 = 0.018% of females are pilots (1 in 5,464 women.)

Your acquaintances generally aren't really chosen at random, so probability numbers wont describe what you actually encounter.

 

[Jim Logajan]

A lot of preplanning, permission seeking and butt kissing and calling in favors went on before I
approached the council with my idea and they took only two seconds to give me their response: This is the girlscouts not the boyscouts!

Wow - after a bit of research on the Girl Scouts, it looks like you ran into a lousy retro-bunch. Juliette Gordon Low, the founder of the Girl Scouts, had created an aviation badge in the 1916 GS handbook!

Looks like the Ninety-Nines have had some positive influences on GS aviation activities:
http://www.ninety-nines.org/index.cfm/aeroed_girl_scouts.htm

 

[Jim Logajan]

Wherever I go, whenever I go, there's always a woman pilot there.

"No matter where you go, there you are." -- B. Bonzai

 

[Jim Logajan]

At our cross country airport (I flew us in the 152 to Little River) I think it was ME that told this brand new pilot we were saying hello to that she was a jet pilot. I don't think she even mentioned it to them . . . Mari is so humble.

Ideally when you and her (and any other woman pilot reading this) are around girls - and even other women - it becomes known to them that you are pilots and that you enjoy it. I believe you already know how influential that knowledge can be.

 

[Jim Logajan]

I guess I just have a hard time thinking I can influence anyone nor would I particularly want to influence anyone. I've always thought that people need to follow their own path although I can see that it helps if they are exposed to whatever it is and can see that it is possible.

To paraphrase Clarence from "It's a Wonderful Life":
Strange, isn't it? Each person's life touches so many other lives. When they aren't around they leave an awful hole, don't they?

Or consider the unattributed saying:
No single drop thinks it is responsible for the flood.