Cockpit “no place for a woman” says WestJet passenger’s note
Posted March 4, 2014 12:03 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
LOWER MAINLAND (NEWS1130) – A Lower Mainland pilot is finding a lot of support online after she posted a passenger’s note that many are calling sexist.
The message, left on a napkin, claims the cockpit “is no place for a woman.”
WestJet pilot Carey Steacy responded online by saying it was her pleasure to fly the passenger safely from Calgary to Victoria.
“I have heard many comments from people throughout my 17-year career as a pilot. Most of them positive. Your note is, without a doubt, the funniest. It was a joke, right? RIGHT?? I thought, not,” reads a post attributed to Steacy. “You were more than welcome to deplane when you heard I was a ‘fair lady.’ You have that right. Funny, we all, us humans, have the same rights in this great free country of ours.”
Lara Campbell of Simon Fraser University’s Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies department says that old attitude seen in the napkin note still exists.
“It doesn’t totally surprise me that some people still feel uncomfortable when they see or hear of a woman doing a job that they associate so strongly with a man’s job,” she tells us.
However, Campbell is heartened by the reaction on social media and says society has changed a lot.
“I think [with] certain jobs, women have successfully broken down the barriers. I think medicine is one, law is another… people aren’t surprised or uncomfortable when they confront a female doctor, for example.”
WestJet says it finds the note disappointing.
