Delta pilot having to correct senator who called her a 'stewardess' sparks important discussion

Despite significant strides in gender equality and numerous reforms aimed at empowering women, misogyny persists in various subtle forms within society. CBS Minnesota posted a video on YouTube of an interaction between a Republican Senator and a female pilot that is pure evidence of how misogyny still exists in our world. Yashar Ali (@yashar) also made a post on X with the short clip. The post has amassed 10 million views and 41K likes on the social media platform.

The video starts with the woman pilot introducing herself by saying, "My name is Laura Haynor, and I am a Minnesota resident and a Minneapolis-based pilot for Delta Airlines." The Senator pronounces her name, asking if his pronunciation is correct, which she affirms. He then asks her, "Can you tell me what a typical workweek is like for you as a stewardess." 

For many years, the job of a flight attendant, or "stewardess," has mostly been associated with women. The Senator somehow glossed over Haynor mentioning that she is a pilot and assumed that she was a stewardess. He does not even realize his mistake until Haynor speaks up and says, "I'm a first officer for Delta." Thankfully, he apologizes once she clarifies and explains, "I don't know why I said that." Haynor is visibly troubled but handles her emotions well. People on the social media platform were quite outraged and shared their thoughts in the comments section. @Made_in_Afrika said, "No respect for hard-earned positions. Men with daughters should be outraged."

@RobynJLeader shared, "I'm a lawyer who gets told where to set my court reporting equipment up by older, white, male lawyers, still, after over 20 years as a litigator. So I get it. I can be the lawyer and not the court reporter, just like she can be the pilot!" Another individual, @saykay, pointed out, "Even if he got it 'right,' he was ironically still wrong. 'Stewardess' stopped being a job title around when in-flight cigarettes did."

Fortunately, there are many women actively combating misogyny every day. Stephanie Evans, a woman gamer, fights against online harassment with a bit of comedy. She is known for her videos showcasing misogynistic comments that she sees from male "Call of Duty" players during her Twitch streams. Evans chooses to fight back in the most funny way by actually going and making sandwiches when someone tells her to "get back in the kitchen." According to INSIDER, Evans utilizes such tactics to empower other women in the industry to stand up to online harassment.

Evans said, "I feel like if I can laugh about it, then you can too, right? So me laughing in their face and coming up with stupid comebacks kind of encourages other people to match that energy with me." She did face quite a bit of backlash for her videos when she first started posting them. However, since the October 2022 release of "Call of Duty" Modern Warfare II," Evans has been regularly posting content on her TikTok.