SpiceJet’s cabin-crew recruitment is accused of being sexist

By A.W. | WASHINGTON, DC

THE “careers” webpage of SpiceJet, an Indian low-cost airline, begins with language that could be on any corporate recruiting website. The airline seeks “highly motivated individuals who can collaborate with like-minded people in an environment that embraces individuality and rewards your best work”. But scroll down to the requirements for applicants to the flight-attendant positions, and the tone changes. The job title is “cabin crew/flight attendant (female).” Under “eligibility criteria”, the page specifies that applicants must be between 18 and 27 years old (though it notes that this requirement can be “relaxed for experienced crew”), at least 155cm tall, and of a weight “in proportion to height”. Candidates must also be unmarried, “with an unblemished complexion and good body language.”

The job description, first spotted by Katherine Fan at The Points Guy blog, makes blatantly explicit what is already quite clear: that flight attendants, particularly in some parts of the world, are expected to conform to a specific notion of sexual attractiveness, and that their jobs depend on their ability to do so. The same SpiceJet page also includes a listing for flight captains (pilots), but that makes no mention of applicants’ gender, complexion, marital status, height or weight. The implication is obvious—that other employees will be hired on their merits, but flight attendants will be screened for their looks.

It is a difficult time for India’s airlines. On August 27th Jet Airways announced that it had lost $189m in the quarter to the end of June. Earlier this month SpiceJet, India’s fourth-largest carrier, announced a surprise loss of $5m during the same period. In July, IndiGo, India’s largest airline, posted a 97% year-on-year decline in net profits for the same quarter. And in June the government abandoned its planned privatisation of Air India, after it attracted no bidders for the firm, which has made losses for a decade and has $7.8bn in debt.

It would be tempting to say that the scandal surrounding the SpiceJet job advertisement would compound these problems. But it may not ruffle many feathers in the industry. The preference for young, attractive flight attendants is spoken about quite openly in some corners. Last year the chief executive of Qatar Airways bragged that the average age of his flight attendants is just 26, in contrast to what he called the “grandmothers” on American carriers.

Earlier this year two female SpiceJet flight attendants complained that they were strip-searched and frisked after a flight. But the airline is not alone in making cabin-crew take off clothing as part of the job. Last year, the Malaysian carrier Malindo Air defended its practice of requiring flight attendant applicants to expose their chests to interviewers, because the interviewers need to “see if they have scars, pimples or tattoos that could be seen through the uniform.” The airlines spokesman added, “We have the right to conduct such body checks on them. I think most airlines do the same.”

None of this, of course, is helping with the pervasive sexual harassment and assault faced by flight attendants. In America, more than two-thirds of flight attendants reported harassment on the job in a recent survey, and many said they had been repeatedly physically abused. But in some other parts of the world, the sexual exploitation of flight attendants seems to be coming not only from passengers, but from the airlines themselves.