Girls and flying -- an interesting experience with the Kiwi

Jay Honeck writes:

While I believe this is true, video game makers have spent years and
billions trying to figure out why girls make up something less than 10%
of the total video game market.

They are probably 10% of the market because they are less than 10% of
the game designers and developers. Boys write games that are
interesting to boys.

There are spectacular exceptions, such as The Sims (which is also
among the best-selling video games overall, even though it's still
only a tiny fraction of the market).

Interestingly, this figure is pretty close to the percentage
of *real* pilots.

Piloting also seems to be something that appeals to mainly boys.
Operating machines and vehicles always seems to appeal to boys more
than girls.

There's either a social stigma for girls, or they are just wired
differently -- but I'm glad the Kiwi seems to have crossed that line,
at least with early teenaged girls.

They are wired differently, as a group. However, individual
variations in personality are much larger than the wired-in
differences between the sexes, which means that, while it's always
true that large groups of girls and boys will show the same
preferences, you cannot depend on this to predict the preferences of
an individual boy or girl. Thus, there are always a few girls who are
just as enthusiastic about flight as any boy--but they always
represent a minority of girls overall.

Early teenaged girls are awash in testosterone, which can slightly
alter their behavior. Girls younger than puberty are not yet worried
about finding partners, which can also alter their preferences.
However, this is just speculation. I don't know why early teenaged
girls would enjoy simulation, but as long as it's true, perhaps it's
best not to ask any questions.

One does wonder how many of them might feel inspired to actually
pursue flight in real aircraft, though.

It would be interesting to gather this same group of girls in five
years, just to watch the dynamics as they fly the Kiwi Version 5.0, and
see if their enthusiasm have changed with age.

It probably will have changed. My guess is that they will be less
interested, but time will tell.

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