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December 10, 2003
flying
Have you noticed how few women there are on weekday, daytime planes? I took this photo as I was boarding a flight from Oslo to Bergen this morning. When I took it I couldn't see a single woman on board except for the flight attendants. Walking further back I did spot a few. Not many.
Flying to meetings every other day may not give you much happiness, so perhaps we needn't strive for equal numbers of men and women in aeroplanes. It's an indication of how completely inequal we still are, though, even in liberated Norway, with our equal opportunity legislation and paternity leave.
Even more interestingly, most men I've mentioned this to haven't even noticed. "There are more men than women on daytime flights? I'd never even thought about that!"
Yes, just about everyone's white too.
Posted by Jill Walker at 02:40 PM in General | Permalink
Comments
I worked as a consultant for three years and had to travel by plane every Monday and Friday to and from client sites (e.g. San Francisco to Chicago, Boston to NYC). I was always very self-conscious on the planes, not only because I was a woman but also because I was much younger (24 - 26 years old) than most of the other business travelers.
Inevitably a man in a business suit seated next to me would ask me things like where I was in school, what I studied, and where I was going, even when I was in a suit as well. When I gave my response, "I'm a technology consultant for a boutique change management firm that works with Fortune 500 companies to streamline technological and business processes," the person would usually get an odd look on his face, say "Oh," and go back to his drink and work.
Posted by: megnut at Dec 10, 2003 5:04:06 PM
You're right on and I notice it all the time. Thanks for blogging about it. H
Posted by: Halley at Dec 10, 2003 6:48:44 PM
i have a completely different experience with the aforementioned demographics of the business flight. For about 5 years i have twice a month been a loyal passenger on the "nerd bird" from austin to san jose and back,
as well as accumulated thousands of miles to standard manufacturing locations in taiwan, europe for work. yes, i am in the
minority as a female-in-high-tech-with-a-spanish-last-name passenger on a plane full of white, male engineers,
marketers or executives on the ride to and from. And no one metaphorically pats my head, stares
or disregards me for being there. when i feel like talking, conversations are typically
about industry news, business issues or mutual contacts. sometimes it's about kids and home renovation projects, or how to handle pet-sitting issues. whatever. i don't feel uncomfortable and in my experience, it doesn't seem like the white males are uncomfortable either. I know it's there. The "it" being the majority vs. the minority. I just got to the point where i try to look at that passenger list as people after many years of regarding them as "white guys who don't get it" (which, yes, there are plenty of those too). my heartfelt 2 cents and not a slam on any above comments at all.
Posted by: dede at Dec 12, 2003 9:23:00 AM
If the men aren't noticing that there are more men than women on the plane, why can't we get to the point where we stop noticing as well?
I think a line like "I'm a technology consultant for a boutique..." sounds intimidating when you're trying to start a small-talk convo with somebody, whether that somebody be a man OR a woman. No wonder the gentleman had an odd look and went back to his drink. I may have done the same thing.
We're trying to be accepted for who we are in -- and what we contribute to -- the tech field. I know we can do that in better ways than posting a picture of a bunch of white guys on a plane and pointing our collective finger at them as if THEY are the ones responsible for all the injustices.
It's threads like this that gives the Juliuses of the world more fuel. I like the ones that talk about women in tech better.
Posted by: kimberly at Dec 12, 2003 1:05:12 PM
Oh, did you take it as an attack on the men!? I hadn't thought of that - it's certainly not what I meant. I like men, and I don't think anything in my post says that men are responsible for the lack of women on planes. Gender inequality is a much larger problem that has to do with history, societal structures and both men and women.
What I wanted to talk about was how it feels to repeatedly be reminded you're so thoroughly in the minority.
Posted by: Jill at Dec 12, 2003 3:24:50 PM
No, I've never noticed how few women there are on weekday, daytime planes. And I don't think just about everyone is white here but I'll pay more attention next time. Flights out of Sacramento, California may be more diverse or we are just paying attention to our work or book during the flight.
Posted by: meg at Dec 13, 2003 3:51:44 AM
Having flown out of Orange County, San Jose, and San Francisco in California on weekdays, I have noticed the discrepancy many times. The men do outnumber the women and the old outnumber the young.
Posted by: Joel at Dec 14, 2003 12:12:50 AM
