Female WestJet pilot receives sexist note from passenger: ‘No place for a woman’
A female WestJet pilot received a sexist note from a male passenger on one of her flights from Calgary to Victoria on Sunday.
The pilot, Carey Steacy, who has 17 years experience flying planes, posted a photo of the note to Facebook.
Identified only as @David, the note to Steacy reads:
“To Capt. / WestJet:
The cockpit of airline is no place for woman. A woman being a mother is the most honor. Not as ‘captain’. Were [sic] short mothers not pilots WestJet.”
The note also references Proverbs 31.
“P.S. I wish WestJet could tell me a fair lady is at the helm so I could book another flight!”
When Steacy posted the note to Facebook she wrote “thank you for the note you discretely left me on your seat. You made sure to ask the flight attendants before we left if I had enough hours to be the Captain so safety is important to you, too.”
Her response goes on to say:
“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. Now, back to my most important role, being a mother.”
Only six per cent of commercial airline pilots in Canada are female.
We have reached out to Steacy and WestJet for a comment.
I don't care for the male's attitude but I do care that there are still Neanderthals amongst us who think that way.
The captain handled her Facebook entry well.
I don't care for the male's attitude but I do care that there are still Neanderthals amongst us who think that way.
The captain handled her Facebook entry well.
I guess, my point is, why even acknowledge that the jerk even exists? There will always be these attitudes, and they truly deserve to be ignored. Why give them the time of day? Racism, sexism etc., will always be a fact of life for some. I choose to ignore them. We all should. Including the young captain, our "Fair Lady"....
Anyone else think the author was likely not educated in Canada due to the spelling of the word 'honor'? I was always taught the proper spelling was 'honour'... Then again judging from the grammar in that note, its possible they weren't educated period.
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"...flying airplanes is really not all that difficult so it attracts some of the most mentally challenged people in society." - . .
"Baby, stick out your can... 'cause I'm the garbageman"
In all seriousness, this type of comportment don't have it's place in this day and age. But like you said, taking this to the social media is giving this way too much importance...
figure out which passenger it was, and ban them from flying on WestJet.
"I'm sorry, since we employ male and female pilots, we think you should find another airline to fly with so that you can rest easy during your flight knowing that a manly man is at the helm"
Another article posted on a friends Facebook. My favourite part:
perception that only men fly planes can stop girls from considering a career in the lucrative field
hahaha, obviously a non pilot wrote this article.
Sexists remarks about a female pilot left on a passenger’s napkin aboard a Calgary flight bound for Victoria Sunday have prompted a heated response from the seasoned flier herself.
Carey Steacy, a pilot of 17 years who currently works for WestJet, said she was “shocked” when alerted to the message left by someone named “David,” who was believed to be seated in 12E aboard Flight No. 463.
David wrote that the cockpit of an airplane is “no place for a woman,” and asked that WestJet alert him the next time “a fair lady is at the helm, so I can book another flight!”
Steacy didn’t take the comments lying down, posting a heated response to her Facebook page that instantly generated hundreds of re-posts and comments.
“I respectfully disagree with your opinion that the ‘cockpit’ (we now call it the flight deck as no cocks are required) is no place for a lady,” she said. “In fact, there are no places that are not for ladies anymore.”
Steacy also indicated the same passenger questioned flight attendants about whether she had an adequate number of flight hours. Reached at her home in Surrey Monday, Steacy said she’d never previously encountered such rude remarks from a passenger.
“I just couldn’t believe there are still people in this country that think like that,” she told Metro. “It just shocked me.”
WestJet was also quick to denounce the comments.
“We take enormous pride in the professionalism, skills and expertise of our pilots and this note is very disappointing,” spokesperson Robert Palmer said in an emailed statement.
The note shocked many online Monday, but didn’t surprise B.C. pilot Kirsten Brazier, founder of the event The Sky’s No Limit — Girls Fly Too!
Fewer than six per cent of commercial pilots are women, so most people have always seen men flying airplanes, Brazier said.
“Anytime people see something that’s not what they’re used to, there’s some resentment there,” she said.
Female pilots “get all kinds of dumb comments from all kinds of people,” but it doesn’t bother Brazier, whose philosophy is to get the job done well.
Yet the perception that only men fly planes can stop girls from considering a career in the lucrative field, an attitude Brazier hopes to combat with her event in celebration of Women of Aviation Worldwide Week.
Taking place at the Langley Regional Airport this weekend, it offers women and girls who have never flown free rides in helicopters to spark their interest in the aviation and aerospace industries.
Lack of female empowerment and equality is still a big problem in our society, even if they do have the vote. This country would be much better off - for both men and women - if we dealt with them instead of pretending that it's only the odd religious nut with extreme views who has a problem. I've already deleted a few stupid posts from this thread but maybe I should have left them to demonstrate that we still have a problem.
Because of the way we raise our girls, it's rare that they consider pilot as a career. Even when they do, sometimes we make it very hard for them for the sole reason that they are girls.
Think about how differently we treat girls from boys. We set up these problems from the time a kid is conceived. Example: My neice has a very A type personality, might make a good pilot some day but she's probably too smart for that. At school, on the playground, and at home she often gets called bossy. When was the last time someone called a boy bossy? Why is leadership considered unladylike?
This Westjet Captain had the chance to highlight a social problem with a ridiculous note and took it. Our response as fellow pilots should be: Good for her.
I'll go one further, if this was my airline, and I was sure who left the note (and it sounds like they are) I would send the twit a letter demanding a written apology and ban him from flying with us until we received it.
"Ideologies can survive hostility, but not indifference." - Mason Cooley
Obviously this note was left to gain this individual some attention, and unfortunately, it did! Anyone with a brain should know this guy is just a complete idiot and should not be given any consideration or deliberation.
ahramin wrote:I care.
I care as well, however, I feel that pasting what some inbred nutcase wrote on a napkin all over the internet is the wrong way of going about it.
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I'm glad I'm not judgmental like all you smug, superficial idiots
While I agree that whoever wrote this was a misinformed idiot, the right thing to do would have been to read it, have a laugh and toss it in the trash...why go to the media??
This may not be a "happy guest" but WJ and their Captain gets 100% sympathy votes and therefore this is another PR coup for WJ. They do know how to play the media!
On a side note I had something similar happen to a Captain I was with. The passenger though didn't leave a note but the dick head stuck his head in the flight deck to make his comment prior to deplaning. I wanted to punch the sexist prick when I realized what he had said but what does that prove. FA got the parting shot and the Captain brushed it off like a champ.
For the record I don't want my daughters to be pilots not for their gender but for what the profession has become.
