{"id":4193,"date":"2021-06-05T22:43:55","date_gmt":"2021-06-05T14:43:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/countryairstrips.com.au\/?p=4193"},"modified":"2021-06-07T08:34:46","modified_gmt":"2021-06-07T00:34:46","slug":"gender-quotas-are-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/countryairstrips.com.au\/gender-quotas-are-wrong\/","title":{"rendered":"Gender quotas are wrong, says first woman airline pilot"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"'Gender
‘Gender Quotas are wrong’ – Australia’s first woman pilot Deborah Lawrie<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Gender quotas are wrong says Australia’s first woman airline pilot, Deborah Lawrie. She believes gender quotas are discriminatory and devalue the achievements of those who get the job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI believe it\u2019s wrong. They\u2019re attacking it from the wrong end,\u201d she said. \u201cThey need to go to the other end, and encourage women to get in the industry in the first place. By virtue of getting more applying, you\u2019ll get more who are competitive with the guys.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lawrie is a trailblazing figure, having won her place in the cockpit by triumphing in a 10-month legal case against Ansett, which then refused to employ woman pilots at all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe best person should always be selected for a job,\u201d said Lawrie. \u201cAnd I think quotas devalue the ones who get the job through merit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo, if you say you\u2019ve got to have 50 per cent guys, 50 per cent females, you are discriminating against the guys who might have been more qualified, over women who are less qualified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPlus, the women who are already there, who reached all the entry prerequisites, they feel devalued. They think, \u2018Oh well, it didn\u2019t matter if I wasn\u2019t good enough or not, I would have got in anyway just because of my gender.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, she said airlines should work harder to encourage school leavers to get interested in the industry. Currently many girls don\u2019t think of it as a potential career. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf there was more emphasis on it being a possibility as a career for a female, you\u2019d get more applying anyway,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Lawrie also thought great progress had been made and pilot selection had \u201cimproved out of sight\u201d from when she struggled to get her break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would have just walked straight through the door with the qualifications I had, without any problems whatsoever,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lawrie\u2019s comments are interesting as most of the Australian industry has embraced \u2018targets\u2019 for their cadetship programs in particular \u2013 though many would argue there are different definitions, interpretations and blurred lines between what constitutes a \u2018target\u2019, \u2018goal\u2019 or a \u2018quota\u2019, and how they are implemented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now-defunct Tigerair was the most prominent advocate of targets and gender diversity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At its end, Tiger\u2019s female representation in the cockpit stood at 8 per cent, making it among the highest in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, brand CEO Merren McArthur said the figure was \u201cnothing to crow about\u201d. She transformed her all-male top team into one with a 60\u201340 split and set, and surpassed a target of ensuring 50 per cent of recruits on its cadetship scheme were female.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2017, Qantas committed to a goal of at least 50 per cent<\/a> in its pilot cadet intake being female in a decade\u2019s time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, chief executive Alan Joyce also said the airline would work \u201cat the grassroots level\u201d to encourage girls and women into studies that could lead to a career in aviation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe just need to reinforce the message that girls and women belong in technical jobs,\u201d he said. Qantas was last reported to have hit 5 per cent of its pilots being women. That is higher than the often reported world average of just 3 per cent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, in 2018, Virgin said it was planning for a 50:50 gender target for its 2019 cadetship program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lawrie represents one of Australian Aviation\u2019s most iconic figures. During 10 months beginning in January 1979, Lawrie battled through five separate legal cases to force Ansett to end its policy of refusing to employ women pilots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In that time, she had her family planning intentions questioned, was told women weren\u2019t strong enough to fly large aircraft and was even informed that menstrual tension could hinder her performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She became Australia\u2019s oldest female airline pilot, too, when she flew with Tigerair, before being made redundant when the brand was discontinued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Article from: Australian Aviation<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gender quotas are wrong says Australia’s first woman airline pilot, Deborah Lawrie. She believes gender quotas are discriminatory and devalue the achievements of those who get the job. \u201cI believe it\u2019s wrong. They\u2019re attacking it from the wrong end,\u201d she said. \u201cThey need to go to the other end, and encourage women to get in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4217,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nGender quotas are wrong | Country Aistrips Australia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gender quotas are wrong says Australia's first female airline pilot, Deborah Lawrie. 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