The Elevator

Just when I thought the world was becoming a friendlier place, that people were becoming less ignorant to the fact that women have a place out of the kitchen , I was proven wrong.

When I reported to the airport for my shift today, I took the elevator up to the lounge. There was a man in the elevator with me. I could feel him looking at me. I looked down since I thought he’d either make lame small talk or try to pick me up by saying “got any room in your luggage for me?” (seriously guys, you need to stop using that one)

Sure enough I was wrong. In somewhat broken English he says:

“You drive plane?”
“Say again.” I said.
“You drive the airplane?”
“Yes.”

He huffed and puffed for a little while till I asked him why he was asking – after all, we ARE in an airport, you should expect to see an “airplane driver” or two.

“I would not want to fly in your airplane.”
“Uh, excuse me?”
“I would be too scared to fly in your airplane.”

I’ve been accused many times in my life of giving people the benefit of the doubt too easily, and this is another example. I thought to myself that maybe he’ll try to flatter me and say that I look too young to “drive plane.” Not so much…

“Why would you be scared?” (and of course I suspected what the second possible answer would be)
“Because you girl.”
“Did you seriously just say that?”
“Do you fly by yourself? Do you have assistant?”
“Every airplane at this airport has 2 pilots.”
“Oh, that’s better.”

I just wanted to get off that bloody elevator. I couldn’t believe that he had the chutzpah to say that. It makes you wonder how many people think this way but don’t voice their opinion.

Meet the Female Pilot

I just moved to a new city and thought it would be a good idea to get out and meet some people. At a social gathering, I met some pretty welcoming people who happened to be from my home town. As we chatted a little, inevitably they wanted to know what I did for a living. I considered lying about my job; as soon as you tell people you’re a pilot, you’re always hit with a barrage of questions. However, I’m without a doubt one of the worst liars in the world, so I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

So, I told them that I’m a pilot; I don’t understand why that’s such a jaw dropping statement.  Apparently I had become worthy of their respect.  Two of them began to parade me around the room and introduced me to their friends. “Sylvia, have you met Beyonce (not my real name), she’s a female pilot?” “Gerry, this is Beyonce, she’s new in town, she’s a female pilot.” I was introduced in this manner three times.

After the third time, I asked one of the people introducing me why she referred to me as a “female pilot.” For starters just Beyonce would have sufficed, but if they insisted on telling people what I did for a living “pilot” would have done the trick. I was standing in front of these individuals, yet apparently my gender was still questionable.

P.S.: I know this issue keeps popping up, so for those who don’t know who I am, I don’t look like a man (nor like Beyonce).

Gonna cry myself to sleep again!

The Career Crossroad

I was at a crossroad in my career. It was time to decide whether I’d take the corporate or airline route. Unfortunately, I was not able to make this decision for myself; someone else made it for me.

I was refused a corporate jet job because the other pilot’s girlfriend felt uncomfortable that her boyfriend would be flying with a girl. Way to stick together girls! That’s ok… I didn’t really want to fly to spend 2 day layovers in New York City and sit on the beach in Miami. I was having much more fun in the job I had at the time; flying drunk people in the middle of nowhere at 2 o’clock in the morning in a rickety turboprop.

Besides it’s probably better that he hire a guy that will insist that they go to the strippers and pick up chicks in the hotel lobby. I hope that makes you feel more comfortable toots.

I’m glad I ended up taking the airline route. They have inclusive hiring policies and can’t discriminate against gender, no matter what their girlfriends say.

Minorities Need Not Apply

Many people over the years have said to me that it must be much easier for me to gain employment as a pilot than my male counterparts on account of employment equity/affirmative action.  Ha, that’s a good one!

People have some insane idea that women, visible minorities, aboriginals and people with disabilities just have it really easy when it comes to getting employment. While I will admit that major airlines do not seem to discriminate, the path to getting on with a major airline is filled with road blocks.

It would be nice to be evaluated on the basis of your experience and character, but this doesn’t always happen when you fit into one of those minority groups.

I have witnessed blatant discrimination towards Muslims, black people and obviously women (myself included) on many occasions. The *few* employers conduct business this way each have their own preconceived notions about minority groups and why they wouldn’t fit in with the other employees. In the case of women; they are not physically strong enough and once a month they become too emotional to fly. What?!

I suppose companies don’t exactly advertise their discriminatory practices, but there is a list of companies that just don’t hire women.  I was determined to gain employment with one of these companies in particular; in retrospect, this was one of the worst ideas that I ever had.

Somehow I broke a barrier and managed to get an interview. Wow… I was a pioneer. During the interview, the subject of not hiring woman came up. The justification for this… wait for it… “women tend to use their ‘assets’ in order to climb the company ladder.” I was proud to announce that this was not at all my style, so I got the job. I was welcomed to the company with the following words (and I’m not even kidding a little bit) “don’t you go having babies now.” It was all downhill from there.

Another company I worked for was desperately seeking pilots. Basically if you had a pulse, you were hired. If you showed up in person, you would be hired on the spot. One person in particular, drove 16 hours in hopes of starting up his career with this company. Since he had bothered to do so, I automatically assumed that I would be working with him the next day. I asked management when he was starting. They said “well, he’s not…” I asked them why not. They said “well… uh… you know…” I said “what do you mean? He came all this way, he’s a great guy. You’ve hired everyone else that has walked through the door…” They continued “well… you know…” I said “I know what? You’re not hiring him because he’s black?!” They rolled their eyes, hung their heads a little and said “well… ya… you know…”

I’ve talked to some people who have an even harder time getting interviews. Those who send off their resumes and have a name like “Mohammed” or “Hussein” or something similarly offensive to the sensibilities of racist employers. These people often don’t even get calls for interviews. A Muslim friend of mine once told me that he wanted to change the name on his resume to “Ethan Tyler” or something of the likes in order to sound as white as possible. I can’t say I didn’t think of changing my first name to my first initial in order to de-feminize it. It’s sad that sometimes it has to come to that sometimes.

I witnessed an interview with a Muslim pilot who actually made it passed the name discrimination portion of the hiring process. I’d say that in a 45 minute interview, the employer spent 25 minutes talking about Ramadan and how this would negatively affect him in the performance of his work duties. Again, preconceived notions about certain groups taking precedence over their qualifications.

All of the above people were discriminated upon because of their so called “minority status” and this was made clear in each case by the employers. For the record, all of this has happened between 2000 and 2013, not 1930-1970.

So if you’re bitter that women and visible minorities are being interviewed for major airlines, don’t forget that the path that they took to that interview *may* have been a pretty winding one.

You Better Redneckognize

I was working in a small airport terminal and walked by two hunters that were obviously “Appalachian American.” They had just finished up their hunting trip and were going back home to (oh let’s say) Alabama still dressed in full camo.

Every time I walked by them, I could see them stare at me and then whisper to each other. After the third or fourth time, I looked right at them… In a very Southern accent one of them says:

“Are you a pilot?!” to which I responded “yes.” The two men stare at each other in disbeleif, and he says:

“Well now I seen evrrrrrythang!”

Creepy Captains

Captain Creepo: “Yeah… I’ve got Alzheimer’s.”
Me: “What are you talking about?”
Captain Creepo: “Yeah… when I’m at work, I forget that I’m married.”
Me: “Dude, you wouldn’t even have stood a chance with me 25 years ago and 25 pounds ago.” (ok, that’s what I WISH I had said.)

This attitude is only one of many that describes the “how the captain sees me” part of The Empty Kitchen’s profile picture.

The dead giveaway when I’m flying with a “Captain Creepo” is within 15 minutes of reporting for duty he says something along the lines of “my wife doesn’t love me anymore” or “my girlfriend and I are having problems.” These are red flags. This is pilot speak for “what happens on the road, stays on the road.”

For some reason these guys think that I was put there to satisfy their every need. This has happened to me way too many times. This is obviously not a conversation that they would have with a male counterpart. Since I’m a woman, it’s apparently fair game. Respect and professionalism are thrown out the window. I’m no longer seen as a pilot (if I ever was), I’m suddenly a conquest.

If anyone is going to tell me that I should be flattered that someone is “interested” in me; please don’t. I’m at work and I expect to be treated like a professional. I’ve worked pretty hard to get to where I am, and I find it insulting to be thought of as anything less than a crew member.

Does this happen to other girls? I really hope it doesn’t, yet I hope it’s not just me.

You’ve got to have a pretty big ego to think that you can pick up chicks while wearing a short sleeve shirt with a tie – geek squad.

Ain’t nobody got time for that!

The “Women’s” Pilot Uniform

Almost 15 years ago when I first started flying I accepted that I had to wear men’s clothing because I had a man’s job. What the hell was I thinking? Man’s job? I don’t even know what defines ‘pilot’ as a man’s job. It is clear however that whoever decided that women would wear this had the same thought pattern.

Ladies, I’ve been checking you out and I’ve got news for you… none of you look good in your boxy shirts, nipple high pants, ties and double breasted jackets. You’re not alone, I look awful too. I cringe every time I look at myself in a mirror. We look like we’re wearing our daddy’s clothing to a costume party.

I think that we too often ignore the pilot uniform issue as it pertains to women. We accept it as a condition of the job; it has never changed, so why would we expect it to? I’ve got 30 years left in my career and I promise that I won’t spend all of it wearing men’s clothing. I would go so far as saying that our uniforms are sexist. I don’t see male flight attendants wearing skirts, why are we not held to a similar standard.

I do realize that having a more feminine version of a pilot’s uniform may increase the number of people confusing us for flight attendants, I think it’s a small price to pay; 80% of people already think we’re flight attendants, what’s another 10%?!

Some airlines have adopted a different uniform for women; namely Air France and TAP. I can’t say that I’m a fan of the Air France uniform but at least it’s made for women.  From what I’ve seen, female pilots in the US are looking generally better than their Canadian counterparts.

I challenge larger Canadian carriers Air Canada, Westjet or Air Transat to be the first airline in Canada to introduce a non-sexist pilot uniform. I say this not only because I’m Canadian, but because Canada really has the most amount of work to do.

female-pilot.jpg

What does the pilot say half way through a first date? “Enough about airplanes, let’s talk about me.”

In recent weeks, many of my male pilot friends have been sharing an “article” on their Facebook pages: “Top 6 Reasons You Should Date a Pilot.” I will cut these guys some slack and assume that they only read the headline and posted it in an attempt to attract some fly honeys.

The piece describes the materialistic reasons (stereotypes) that make dating a pilot such a great thing. I find her point of view embarrassing and I hope it isn’t taken seriously by anyone.

P.S.: If the guy in the picture is the boyfriend she speaks of: #1 based on the aircraft he flies, he does not fly to the exotic destination that she claims he does. #2, his shirt is about 3 sizes too big. (meow)

http://www.sheknows.com/love-and-sex/articles/1013911/6-reasons-you-should-date-a-pilot

1. “If you’re into jet setting”

Yeah… date a guy to get a discount on flights. That’s definitely on my top 10 list of attractive traits in a man. I wonder if Lululemon has a corporate flight department, this way a girl could get a discount on flight AND yoga pants. Priorities girls, priorities.

2. Built in breaks

Sure, maybe it’s not the best idea to spend every waking moment with your significant other. It is true that a pilot’s schedule allows for “me” time. I, however, have never heard of this referred to as a good thing. The non-pilot significant other is often not ok with the pilot in the relationship being gone for a few nights. I won’t get into it, but sometimes people get up to no good when unsupervised.

3. Conquer your fear of flying

That’s actually the lamest excuse for dating a pilot I’ve ever heard. Maybe a therapist may be more up your alley.

4. No more boring office stories

No, from now on it’s only stories about how awesome he is for greasing on a crosswind landing. Of course there’s my favourite line “would you like to hear about how I shot the ILS to minimus, no autopilot?”

5. Mile-high dates

I don’t know ANY commercial pilot that has rented a plane “just for fun” since their initial flight training was completed. The cost of doing this is astronomical; getting checked out on the airplane plus renting it for your date… that could be $500. Pilots can’t afford this. This is where reason #1 for dating a pilot comes into play; discounted flights. It’s probably a cheaper date to take 2 airline passes and go to Miami for the weekend.

6. Everyone likes a man in uniform

I have to admit that the uniform is the only thing I dislike about my job. For women, our uniforms look like we played dress up in daddy’s clothes. However, this “article” clearly makes the assumption that women aren’t pilots. The men look like they’re wearing gender appropriate clothing, except in the case of many airlines; clothing that was purchased in a Halloween store. Trick or treat.

This blog is inspired by my daily work life, which is way more entertaining than it should be. For the purposes of protecting people’s identity, I will use fake names, places, dates, aircraft type and company names.

Some may know the connotation of “Empty Kitchen” as quite negative and sexist… I mean no offence by it, I use it to show that the attitude towards female pilots has barely changed over the last 15-20 years. As much as people think it has changed, women still make up less than 5% of airline pilots worldwide. I suppose that this statistic explains why people (including male pilots) are still so shocked to see that we exist.

Standby for stories and shenanigans…