Fabulous But Not Yet First-Class?

On a recent trip, I flew from Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles, from Los Angeles to Dallas, and from Dallas back to Washington, D.C. Each time as I made my way through the first-class cabin on my way to my coveted aisle seat in coach, I noticed that first class was cpmpletely full. By the third leg of my trip, I made yet another observation. I had passed through a full first-class cabin three times and had seen only three women seated there the entire trip. Men, it seems, are able to travel in comfort and style in far greater numbers than women. And it’s 2007.

I reflected back to many other flights I had taken and my overall impression was that men have always been in the majority when it comes to flying first-class. In an unofficial survey of my women friends who travel, their recollections matched up with my own. We all puzzled that one – why are women so far outnumbered by men in that pampered, expensive environment? Think back on your own flights, whether many or few. What ratio do you recall seeing?

We didn’t have a definitive answer, but a few good ideas emerged, given that most first-class travel is professional business-related:

• Men largely still control the money.
• High-performing men are still more highly valued by their employers than their female counterparts, so their well-being is taken more seriously.
• Women are undervalued and expected to sacrifice monetarily for the “greater good” of their workplaces.
• Women are too shy/intimidated to ask for these extra perks.
• Women are used to “doing without” for the good of the whole.
• Women often acquiesce rather than rock the boat and demand what others are getting.

Any, some, or all of the above are possibilities, and probably there are other reasons as well. But what is certain is that, as much as women have gained professionally since the beginning of the women’s movement almost 40 years ago, we are still not getting the “cash and prizes” that men are getting for the same level of contribution to business and society.

It’s certainly not that women don’t care whether they are traveling first class or not – and you can take this metaphorically and include the entire flight we call life – we like our comforts just as much as men do. We have even been unfairly accused of “needing” them more than men (even though we often do better than men under rugged and trying circumstances). Is our professional value and well-being not being taken as seriously as men’s?

In a letter to the editor in the April 8, 2007, Washington Post, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Sen. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) state that women earn only 77 cents for each dollar men earn, and that the gap is even greater for black and Hispanic women. While it may be argued (not very successfully) that women are not doing the same jobs as men, we can look at, for example, veterinary medicine as an example of a profession once populated by men only. While it was never as high-earning as other medical professions, the salaries now even appear to be going down, as the veterinary profession becomes more dominated by women – some estimate that 70% of the veterinary students in the U.S. are now female. What are being blamed are women’s supposedly inferior salary-negotiating skills. Apparently, the 77/100 earning ratio is just the tip of the iceberg.

OK – I don’t think I will be able to demand (or even politely request) first-class travel accommodations from my current employer. I don’t think many of us can, realistically speaking. But we can see that the bar has been set high, and we haven’t even begun to approach it. As a whole, we should be seeing women being as valued and well-cared for in their professions as men are. And we should start by caring for ourselves whenever possible, by requesting, when appropriate, what we do deserve, when we deserve it. At the very least, fair and equal perks and benefits.

But will this be helpful? We can’t be sure until we start doing it. There is always the risk that whoever holds the purse strings will counter that your contribution has not been as deserving. And as often as not, that won’t be true. But, regardless, they have to start hearing from us.

This is not really about whether we travel first-class or coach on an airplane. As I said earlier, this is a metaphor to be compared and contrasted to the whole and bigger picture. Are we going to travel first class through life, or fly coach? If we don’t want to – fine and good. But if we do want to, something’s gotta change. And as with everything else, it has to start with ourselves. It has to start with valuing our own efforts, contributions, and successes as much as we value those of men. As we begin to have a clearer picture in our minds of our value to the social and economic fabric of civilization, and not sweep our contributions under the rug as “all in a day’s work,” our efforts may still go unrecognized and unrewarded.

DTBF!
Patti