TUI Airways Give Sexist Stickers to Children on Board! Future 'Captain' Badges for Boys And 'Cabin Crew' for Girls
A passenger on board said that the stickers were deliberately sorted on the basis of gender.
TUI Airways, a chartered airline is facing the wrath of social media for its sexist views. Dame Gillian Morgan who was flying with them to Bristol from Paphos, Cyprus, on August 15 saw a stewardess handing out stickers to the children on-board. Later, she realised that the "all the little boys had been given stickers that said Future Pilot" while those given to girls read 'Future Cabin Crew'. Morgan who is a 65-year-old doctor and scientist called it 'deeply sexist' and that the stickers were deliberately sorted on the basis of gender.
Metro.co.uk quoted Morgan as saying, "The stickers were gender neutral but it's the way that they were handed out that makes it complicated. It happens implicitly all the time. The boys can have the Lego, the space rocket going to the moon, and the girls can have a little pony."
She added saying, "We desperately need more women to do science, maths and engineering but little things like this take us backwards by providing restricting roles. It actually stops us as a country, getting the best out of our workforce. In 30 years time, it might be likely that the majority of pilots will still be men but we should not be turning off the girls who are going to be the ones to walk on Mars."
Here are stickers that were given to children:
TUI, formerly known as Thomson Airways said that they had not intended to give the stickers to children based on their gender, but it was just a 'simple mix-up'. The airline said in a statement: "We're sorry to hear a small number of customers have been upset by this. We think it has just been a simple mix-up since our future pilot and cabin crew stickers are designed for use for any child regardless of gender.
They added saying, "The stickers are part of our activity packs which are intended to be used by the crew to interact, engage with and create special moments for our customers on their holiday. The feedback we've had so far this summer has been overwhelmingly positive. Children fall in love with flying when they go on their holidays with us and we want to encourage their dreams of becoming future pilots and crew members."
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 23, 2018 10:07 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).