Head of Qantas suspected for being female
Australian article via fark:
QANTAS chairman Margaret Jackson was suspected of being a terrorist and frisked during a visit to the US last year. The airport security guard who checked her was reluctant to believe that a woman could be the head of an airline.
Mrs Jackson said yesterday her briefcase was searched after she went through a security check at Los Angeles airport.
Among her documents were detailed plans of new aircraft, including cross-section diagrams showing seat layouts.
"The guy said 'Why have you got all of this?'," she told the Herald Sun.
"And I said, 'I'm the chairman of an airline. I'm the chairman of Qantas'. And this black guy, who was, like, eight foot tall, said, 'But you're a woman'."....
After proving her identity, Mrs Jackson produced paper with her letterhead on it and wrote a note to the guard, whose name was Bill.
"And I wrote, 'Dear Bill, this is from the chairman of Qantas, who is a woman'."
This reminds me of a 1989 article about women at technical conferences, which I first excerpted in a report about women in computer science:
[PFS Inc. president Mary] Rich remembers attending the National Computer Conference (NCC), a now-defunct computer convention, where the male attendees outnumbered the female ones by a ratio of 300 to 1. Convention officials as well as hotel staffs were extremely suspicious of single women, Rich said. Women were often suspected of being prostitutes trying to solicit show attendees. Rich said she once tried to go to the hotel room of a colleague for a drink only to be kicked out by security when trying to get in an elevator.
Rich, who co-chaired the 1986 NCC with another woman, said that as recently as three years ago one of the primary concerns was how women were being treated at the show. `We still had problems with security not believing [the credentials of] women trying to get onto the show floor,' she said [LaPlante 1989].
times have changed (sort of)
I was just at shmoocon '06, (shmoocon.org) a hacker con re computer/network security, and while I'd still guess that the male/femail ratio was probably still more like 25 or 50:1, the interesting thing was that there were probably 4 or 5 female speakers.
On the other hand, having been at defcon (the worlds largest and longest running hacker con) last year, which had a fair showing of real live geek girls, but also had a respectable number of strippers and prostitutes (although that's not so unsurprising.. it was in las vegas)
Thanks for clearing that up!
I agree. She trying to make a statement about equality for women while disparaging someone by bringing up their race.
Very bizarre. Interesting story though!
Love,
Mz Manners
Why does is matter that Bill was black?
So do you think Bill didn't believe that a women could be the chairperson of an airline because he's black? And isn't Margaret the Chair, Chairperson or Chairwoman of Quantas?
It seems like you're trying to say something about women and black men with this story, but I can't figure out what it is.
Your friend,
Mz Manners
I thought it strange too
I thought it strange too that the article mentioned he was black. I was just quoting it verbatim.
I think the woman's complaint would have been much stronger had she not noted something irrelevant about the agent (his race and height).
well
I think part of it was her attempt (though it could have been worded differently) to convey that she felt intimidated (and perhaps humiliated). That's at least my reading of her use of hyperbole (8 feet tall) in describing his height.