An American scientist was appreciative of the female pilot and all-woman flight crew of the Air India flight that she was on and she tweeted about this. Dr. Cristine Legare is a cognitive scientist and senior researcher and was pleasantly surprised to make this discover on her flight to Delhi. Responses to her tweet were somewhat expected:
Dr. Legare tweeted this. She appreciated the smooth flight and landing and the fact that India has the largest number of female pilots in the world currently. She also ended with a cheery Jai Hind!
This is a generic photo and not the picture taken aboard her flight, she clarified.
Many men and women expressed their approval of the fact that women pilots are no longer a novelty in India. They expressed pride in the fact that there are more women pilots in India today than any other country in the world.
Not only does India have the largest absolute number of women pilots, we also have the largest percentage of women pilots vis-à-vis male pilots. Oh! And no gender pay gap! Fist pump!
Maybe this guy said this only as a joke or to get a rise out of the other Tweeple? Because no one could be that bigoted and chauvinistic and ignorant could they?
Some people try to disguise their gender bias (if not rank misogyny) by making so called jokes. They think making these tired, stereotypical jokes about women and their driving skills is ha-ha funny.
Other tweets shared similar experiences of flying aboard aircraft with all women crews as well.
Some of the tweeple mentioned other instances where women provided exceptional service: there are now several fuel pumps ‘manned’ by women.
This tweet has a point though, when it says that if women were more a part of our social discourse and more visible in public and professional life, we wouldn’t have to ‘celebrate’ or specifically mention something like this.
When women manage to get the same opportunities as do men, we will see more of them around. Then perhaps we won’t have to specifically mention their presence and their achievements as being those of women. When gender becomes irrelevant; only then can we have genuine equality.
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