How Attitudes Shape Female Cabin Crew Identity in Middle East

This essay examines the experiences of female cabin crew working for airlines in the Middle East, focusing on how they respond to societal attitudes and how these perceptions shape their social and gender identities. It discusses the historical context, highlighting the challenges faced by female cabin crew in the region, including issues related to cultural norms, perceptions of beauty versus skill, and the conflict between feminist and non-feminist viewpoints. The essay references key literature, such as Mills (2017) and Vatankhah, Raoofi and Ghobadnezhad (2017), to support its arguments, addressing the impact of customer-centric approaches and the efforts of organizations like IATA and EASA to protect and support female cabin crew. The analysis covers the negative impacts of certain attitudes on career progression and the steps being taken to address these issues, emphasizing the importance of changing perceptions and ensuring the safety and well-being of female cabin crew in the Gulf countries and beyond.

HOW FEMALE CABIN CREW
WORKING IN THE MIDDLE
EAST AIRLINES RESPOND TO
THE ATTITUDES OF OTHERS
AND HOW CREW
PERCEPTION ON THESE
ATTITUDES SHAPES CREW
SOCIAL AND GENDER
IDENTITY.

Table of Contents
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
How female cabin crew working in the middle east airlines respond to the attitudes of others
and how crew perception on these attitudes shapes crew social and gender identity. ...............3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

MAIN BODY
How female cabin crew working in the middle east airlines respond to the attitudes of others and
how crew perception on these attitudes shapes crew social and gender identity.
According to (Mills, 2017) A long time has passed, a century to be precise since the first woman
joined the work of the cabin crew. Still in some countries such as United Arab Emirates it is not
considered right. It is difficult for the people there to understand the role between the men and
women. It has become an issue for the airlines who serve in UAE as they are suffering from
incapacity. Since the beginning people who live there don't accept their way of talking and the
way they dress up. Males started to feel that they get this job because of their body and beauty
not on the basis of their calibre and talent which also made the females to think the same and
they started to focus on that instead of improving their skills. So that it will be easy for them to
reach heights in their career. As per the view of (Vatankhah, Raoofi and Ghobadnezhad, 2017.)
Another issue was having the conflict between the people who are feminist and non feminist. It
has been observed that people have different perception of this topic and that leads to increase in
fake feminism. This issue was raised that so that people of United Arab Emirates can stop
thinking that girls or women or preferred in this job not because of their talent and skill but
because of there looks which is very offensive for every women out there. One thing that was the
major concern that all the airlines are customer centric so they have to agree with them even if
there point is not right. Women who serve in these airlines has to go through a lot to satisfy there
customers. It is spreading a negative approach to discourage them in applying for this job and
make this as there career. Many women has been affected by this in the Gulf countries. On the
other hand the companies and training schools are trying to encourage them as it is more of a
female centric job. If not in Gulf countries but in other countries people appreciate it and airlines
has to go to to various international destinations so they have to keep thinking this according to
everyone's perspective. Airlines will loose some clients because of it and they may suffer from
reduction in revenue but this approach needs to be change. Measures and ways are being taken
by many organizations such as IATA and EASA in order to change the thinking of people or to
make the cabin crew feel secure by taking actions who disturbs them and hurts them so that they
face justice and the consequences of their actions. This will help them to safeguard the interests
of women and put their interest back in making there career in the line of cabin crew in gulf
countries.

REFERENCES
Books and Journal
Mills, A.J., 2017. Dueling Discourses: Desexualization versus Eroticism in the Corporate
Framing of Female Sexuality in the British Airline Industry, 1945–1960 . In Insights☆
and Research on the Study of Gender and Intersectionality in International Airline
Cultures (pp. 209-235). Emerald Publishing Limited.
Vatankhah, S., Raoofi, A. and Ghobadnezhad, M., 2017. Using compensation satisfaction to
predict turnover intention and theft among cabin crew: Mediating role of fraternal
deprivation. Journal of Service Science Research. 9(1). pp.91-119.