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Young kids meet women in traditionally 'male' jobs and their reaction speaks volumes

It's a brilliant example of how we're taught gender stereotypes at a very, very early age.

Photo from YouTube video

A campaign pushes back against limitation and gender roles.

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? A firefighter? A rockstar? What about a veterinarian or a fighter pilot?

While you were dreaming up your future career, did the fact that it typically attracts workers of a certain gender influence you at all? You might be quick to say "no way," but gender stereotypes likely played a part in your development even if you weren't aware of it.


In #RedrawTheBalance, a campaign from Inspiring the Future, a group of kids were asked to draw people in various careers like firefighters or surgeons.

Here's what they drew:

A surgeon.

career choices, influence, education, positive reinforcement

A child draws a surgeon as a man.

Photo from YouTube video

A firefighter.

stereotypes, family, classroom, role models

Children attach gender to different jobs they draw based on stereotypes.

Photo from YouTube video

Notice a trend?

According to several studies, children tend to be more rigid in their gender stereotyping, which may be because they have a more "absolutist sense of rules" than adults do.

Children learn this stereotyping behavior from lots of places — parents, friends, and, of course, the media they consume. Unfortunately, the stereotype that certain jobs are for certain genders still prevails to this day, which is a shame because it means that kids grow up thinking there are certain jobs they can't do because of their gender.

There is good news, however. While young kids are impressionable, that doesn't mean it's too late to correct those impressions — sometimes all it takes is them meeting one person doing one job that doesn't fit a stereotype to change the way they see the world.

gender roles, career, classroom, education

Women demonstrating that all types of careers are open for exploration.

Photo from YouTube video

That's what happened when these kids get their minds blown when people who do the jobs they illustrated walk into the room and they aren't exactly who they expected to see.

Children appear excited and interested during the PSA.

If you'd like to see what happened for yourself, click on the link to the video below:

This article originally appeared on 09.01.16

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Well Being

A Delta pilot's pandemic cockpit note was just found. It spells hope.

Chris Dennis/Facebook

The airline industry was one of the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, as global and domestic travel came to a screeching halt last spring. When the pandemic was officially declared in March of 2020, no one knew what to expect or how long the timeline of lockdowns and life changes would last.

Two weeks after the declaration, Delta pilot Chris Dennis flew one of the airline's planes to Victorville, CA for storage. He shared photos on Facebook that day of empty planes neatly lined up, saying it was a day he would remember for the rest of his life.

"Chilling, apocalyptic, surreal...all words that still don't fit what is happening in the world," he wrote. "Each one of these aircraft represents hundreds of jobs, if not more."

He added:

"For those airline folks who were around for 9/11, this feels even more real, more urgent. During 9/11 aircraft were stuck at airports around the country and the enemy was known. Now, they are all concentrated in huge lots and mothballed waiting for this battle to turn around against an enemy we can't see or fight.

While we all are under 14 day quarantine and are sick of looking at our ceilings and walls, this is what is happening to the airline industry and other industries out there. It is horrifying. Please stay inside, social distance, and let this blow over quickly."

As we all know, it turned out to be much more than a 14-day quarantine.

The final photo Dennis shared was a note he wrote and left in the tray table of the cockpit on March 23, 2020.

The note read:

"It's March 23rd and we just arrived from MSP [Minneapolis-St. Paul]. Very chilling to see so much of our fleet here in the desert.

If you are here to pick it up then the light must be at the end of the tunnel.

Amazing how fast it changed. Have a safe flight bringing it out of storage!"

According to The Washington Post, the plane Dennis left the note in was used for parts for other aircraft while it was parked in Victorville, a common occurrence for planes in storage.

More than a year later, it was time for the aircraft to be "woken up" and prepped for passengers once again—and that's when Dennis's note was found.

Delta shared the note on Facebook and explained how Dennis had left it on the parked plane. Then they wrote about how it was found:

"Fast forward more than a year later to First Officer Nick P. landing at VCV and starting on his checklist to wake up ship 3009. One thing he didn't expect to find was Chris' letter, tucked away on a tray table in the flight deck.

Those 57 words, which captured so much of the uncertainty and emotion we all felt in March 2020, underscored the gravity of the trip, and how optimistic he now feels about the direction we're heading in. Ship 3009 is now prepared to take the skies once again.

While the world certainly has changed over the past year, one thing is for certain: we won't be taking that open runway for granted anytime soon."

Thank you, First Officer Dennis, for the reminder of how far we've come since March of 2020 and how grateful we are to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

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These German pilots stopped the deportation of over 200 asylum seekers on their flights.

Germany has become a focal point for the immigration debate in Europe.

The European nation has opened its doors to asylum-seekers and refugees looking for a safe haven. Recently, Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed to accept 10,000 U.N. refugees into the country; between January and July 2017, Germany reportedly accepted approximately 117,000 asylum seekers.

What happens to asylum seekers who are turned away? Unfortunately, if they appeal the decision regarding their rejected asylum applications and are denied, they risk deportation. According to Germany's Office of Immigration and Refugees, the country has rejected 210,000 asylum seekers.

But several German pilots have been preventing asylum seekers from being deported in a truly "Hail Mary" fashion.

Throughout all of 2017, these pilots refused to fly planes set to deport 222 Afghan asylum seekers. The stand down from these flights comes from a controversial European Union decision to designate Afghanistan as a "safe country of origin." The designation resulted in many Afghan nationals losing their asylum status.

Out of all the flights that refused to take off, 85 were operated by Lufthansa (or its subsidiary Eurowing). Most of these flights were scheduled to take off in Frankfurt and Düsseldorf, where, according to Quartz, the #WelcomeUnited campaign often holds their pro-refugee protests.

Photo by Daniel Leal-Olivias/AFP/Getty Images.

These pilots risk being punished with disciplinary measures for refusing to fly on moral grounds. However, it should be noted that some had other reasons for refusing to take off. For instance, they could cite "security reasons" for not flying a plane. "If [a pilot] has the impression that flight safety could be affected, he must refuse the transport of a passenger," Lufthansa spokesperson Michael Lamberty said in a statement to the German press.

Unlike the U.S., Germany's federal government is barred from conducting and enforcing deportation, meaning that deportation is the responsibility of the local and state governments. Therefore, these protests add more obstacles to the successful deportation of asylum seekers.

Pilots refusing to fly deportation flights are just one example of activists and airline companies pushing back against deportations.

In July, Swedish activist Elin Errson made headlines for live-streaming her refusal to sit down because an Afghan man on the flight was about to be deported.

"I want him to get off the plane because he is not safe in Afghanistan," Errson said in her live-stream. "I am trying to change my country's rules. I don't like them. It is not right to send people to hell."

In 2013, immigration activists chained themselves to courthouses to prevent jail sentences for undocumented immigrants. More recently, others have chained themselves to tires to physically block buses from carrying out deportations.

Airline companies are also taking part. For example, in June 2018, Virgin Atlantic Airlines announced they will no longer help deport immigrants. American Airlines, Frontier Airlines, and United Airlines have also publicly announced their refusal to deport immigrant children in response to President Trump's family separation policy. In addition to these, Southwest Airlines, Spirit Airlines, and Alaskan Airlines all have released public statements criticizing the U.S. immigration policy.

Let's hope other airlines take notice and join the good fight.

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The skies just got a little friendlier with these two history-making pilots.

This month, the friendly skies became even friendlier when Alaska Airlines made pretty awesome history.  

After American Airlines Captain Tara Dillon-Wright joked with passengers about Mother's Day and other fun tidbits, she introduced her teammate, 1st Officer Mallory Cave, along with the amazing news.

Making Alaska Airlines history this morning! First Officer Mallory Cave and I serve as the very first all African-American female crew on Alaska Flt #361, San Francisco to Portland, OR. 👩🏽‍✈️👩🏽‍✈️

Posted by Tara Dillon Wright on Sunday, May 13, 2018

For the first time in the airline's history, the plane would be piloted by two black female pilots.

"Finally, you're sharing a pretty interesting piece of Alaska Airlines history this morning," she told passengers in the video. "You'll be piloted by two female African-American pilots for the first time in the airline's history."

The passengers of the Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Flight #361, flying from San Francisco to Portland, burst into applause. Because really, who doesn't want to enjoy beautiful skies while being flown by awesome, history-making women?  

The flight marks a much-needed change in the airline industry.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 72% of air transportation employees are white and 60% are male.  

Overall, a whopping 97%% of aircraft pilots are white, with female pilots making up a mere 5%. One study found that found that desegregation in airline flight decks hasn't progressed since 1980. Black pilots at a number of airlines have talked about the discrimination they've experienced, and women have also faced discrimination and harassment in the industry.

The disparity is frustrating, but Dillion-Wright and Cave's accomplishment shows that change is coming.  

In spite of what the numbers say, women continue to make it clear that male-dominated industries are no longer "boys clubs."

In the 1920s, Bessie Coleman became the first African-American woman to hold a pilot's license. Her progress was inspiration for women around the world who wanted to work in male-dominated industries. Take, for instance, former Navy fighter pilot Tammie Jo Shults, who made an incredible life-saving emergency landing after debris from an engine failure broke open a plane window. Or Clara Lyde, Lauren Plagainos, and Wendy Tapia, all three of whom joined the Fire Department of New York, one of the most notoriously competitive fire departments in the country.    

These women and countless others are showing us that they are not only good enough to be in these industries, they belong there.

Though we're far from equal racial and gender breakdowns in numerous career fields, many women are doing the work to get us there.  

With leaders like Dillon-Wright and Cave, it's clear that we're getting even closer.  

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