No High Heels: Australian Airline Scraps Gender-Based Uniform Guideline

A woman decked up in a nicely ironed uniform (maybe a short skirt or knee-length dress), with makeup on her face and hair in place, wearing high heels, and not a single pimple on her face. That's an air hostess for you, right? But do you have any idea what goes behind being picture-perfect? The sexist grooming guidelines.

Recently, Australia's national airline announced to scrap of its gender-based uniform guidelines. It will now allow male cabin crew to wear make-up and women the option to ditch high heels and choose the footwear they want. The change was made to reflect modern expectations and uniforms more comfortable for staff from "diverse cultural backgrounds", as per Qantas.

Australia's Qantas Uniform Guidelines

There have been times when flight attendants had to follow strict company guidelines. The guidelines included the right shade of eye colour and lip colour, a standard hairdo, for some airlines it was not using more than 4 bobby pins, certain footwear, strict body mass index standards, and more. If it was not followed, they are assigned off-flight duties. 

For many it seems, it is good to have discipline and uniformity, and as they say, there is no harm in looking pleasant. But is it the same for men too? Women are expected to doll up to please passengers, do you know how much pressure they feel? Constantly standing on high heels, waking hours early for a morning flight only to get ready as per the guidelines is too much. Female flight attendants were used as marketing tools since the 1960s. The more the attendant is appealing, the more it attracts passengers to airlines. 

Scrapping Sexist Uniform Guidelines

However this is changing, the airlines are changing policies that sexist, stereotypical, and ingrained in gender bias. The labour union played a major role in scrapping the guidelines.

Earlier, the Australian airline was known for its strict grooming guidelines. They had banned handlebar moustaches, decided on the length of sideburns, and fixed the ideal shades of eyeliner. The change was implemented after pressure from labour unions, who asked Qantas to remove the prerequisite that female staff wears make-up. If not for unions or to get adapted to changing trends, the airline would have never changed its policies. In fact, the change nowhere addressed the older policies being sexist or gender biased. Other airlines too need to identify the biases and inculcate change in their policies and not refrain from acknowledging sexism. 

Last year Akasa Air introduced a new uniform for its cabin crew, which included sneakers. This was done to prioritise the comfort of its crew. The notion that flight attendants are just pretty faces to serve passengers is widely perceived and which is why they are asked to look picture-perfect. This perception needs to change as they are more than food servers.

The cabin crew are responsible for the safety and security of passengers in flight. The cabin crew takes care of hassle-free air travelling, without them, air travel could be a mess. The airlines should project flight attendants as more than just a glamorous faces. 

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