Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

Life

Australia’s Qantas lets female cabin crew ditch high heels

Australia’s national airline announced on Friday that it will scrap its gender-based uniform guidelines.

Australia's Qantas Group has named Vanessa Hudson as its first female chief executive
Australia's Qantas Group has named Vanessa Hudson as its first female chief executive - Copyright AFP/File William WEST
Australia's Qantas Group has named Vanessa Hudson as its first female chief executive - Copyright AFP/File William WEST

Australia’s national airline announced on Friday that it will scrap its gender-based uniform guidelines, allowing male cabin crew to wear make-up and giving women the option to ditch high heels.

Qantas said it had overhauled its guidelines to better reflect modern expectations, and to make uniforms more comfortable for staff from “diverse cultural backgrounds”.

The airline has drawn attention for its fastidious style guide in the past, which banned handlebar moustaches, policed the length of sideburns, and specified the ideal shades of eyeliner.

The changes came at the insistence of labour unions, who urged Qantas to scrap rules such as the requirement that female staff wear make-up.

“Fashions change and so have our style guidelines over the years,” the airline said in a statement.

“Our uniform standards have always been reflective of the times.”

Qantas said the new “style and grooming guidelines” would ditch the previous “male” and “female” uniform categories.

Now cabin crew can choose whether to wear make-up, can opt for flat shoes, and can have long hair as long as it is in a ponytail or bun.

Diamond earrings are also allowed, while strict rules governing the size and style of watches have been dumped.

AFP
Written By

With 2,400 staff representing 100 different nationalities, AFP covers the world as a leading global news agency. AFP provides fast, comprehensive and verified coverage of the issues affecting our daily lives.

You may also like:

World

Calling for urgent action is the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)

Business

The cathedral is on track to reopen on December 8 - Copyright AFP Ludovic MARINParis’s Notre-Dame Cathedral, ravaged by fire in 2019, is on...

Business

Saudi Aramco President & CEO Amin Nasser speaks during the CERAWeek oil summit in Houston, Texas - Copyright AFP Mark FelixPointing to the still...

Business

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal infers that some workers might be falling out of the job market altogether.