An interesting story has been making the rounds in Australia over the past week.
On August 31 this year, female British Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Exeter, Dr. Siobhan O’Dwyer took a Qantas flight and was unhappy that although her boarding pass stated her title as ‘Doctor,’ when Qantas crew checked her boarding pass they referred to her as ‘Miss.’
She tweeted the following after the flight:
https://twitter.com/Siobhan_ODwyer/status/1035490124589674496
Dr. O’Dwyer has gone on to say that it was not about her ego, and that this error would not have been made by the crew if she was male, and it is an example of the ‘everyday sexism she, and other women have to face.’
This has caused great debate both online and in media circles.
The tweet has been liked almost 9,000 times with almost 7,000 comments both supporting and criticising her (in roughly equal measure).
Many sympathise with Dr. O’Dwyer and are calling for Qantas to apologise to her for the error. However just as many commentators have called Dr. O’Dwyer petty for making such a big deal out of something they deem fairly insignificant.
Qantas has attempted to downplay the issue, only publicly saying:
We are extremely proud of our cabin crew who respectfully serve our customers day in and day out and play a vital safety role.
Bottom line
I’m not going to give my opinion on this one, especially after the British Airways hairstyle article, other than to say the Qantas crew member may have simply not seen the title on the boarding pass, rather than actively choosing to ignore it, or ‘deciding it’s a typo’ as the tweet suggested.
I’m interested to know what you guys think of this though — should Qantas apologise for not using a passenger’s correct title, as is stated on their boarding pass?
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