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Deborah Lawrie had one dream. Having started flying lessons at the age of 16, she was determined to become a pilot. But one man stubbornly stood in her way.
In the 1970s, no commercial airline in Australia had hired a female to fly their planes. But Deborah was talented – and determined. And so in 1976 she began applying to Ansett for their pilot program.
Deborah had obtained a private pilot licence in 1971 and then a commercial pilot licence two years later. She had 2600 flying hours under her belt. And with a spotless safety record, she should have been a shoe-in.
Instead, she watched on as her male colleagues progress in front of her while she got nowhere. By the time the Anti-Discrimination Act was implemented in NSW and Victoria in 1977 – which prohibited discrimination against gender, race or marriage status when it came to employment – she was ready to take her fight higher.
“I had all the qualifications necessary,” Deborah – who used her now ex-husband’s surname of Wardley at this time – explains in a new episode of The Australian Women’s Weekly Love Stories. She woudl get constant knockbacks – 10 in total. “I had the minimum number of hours, but this was a delaying tactic.”
At that time, the cut-off age for acceptance into the pilot program was 27. Ansett clearly thought they could wait it out until Deborah eventually got there.
Finally, however, she was accepted for an interview. She passed the process with flying colours and was given the go-ahead by the interviewing panel.
“When they passed their decision up to senior management – Reg Ansett – he turned it around, saying, ‘No women are ever going to fly on my airline,'” Deborah recalls of what happened next.
Citing things like women weren’t physically strong enough, their hormones made them irrational once a month and that they would cost the company money by taking time of to have babies and more, Reg stood firm. But so did Deborah Lawrie. And so she enlisted a lawyer and in 1978 began a fight that gripped the nation.
The case of Wardley v Ansett Transport Industries (Operations Pty Ltd) was the first sex discrimination in employment case to go before the Equal Opportunity Board. As a result, the long and gruelling court case was widely covered on television. And there were plenty of women – and men too – who were on her side. Marches in the streets took place. There were “girlcotts” of Ansett.
“At that time, a lot of women worked as secretaries,” Deborah laughs. “And when their bosses had to fly anywhere, the secretaries made the bookings. So those women had a lot of power andthey actually boycotted Ansett.”
As a result, Ansett lost over half it’s business travel.
Still, the company held firm. In a letter to the secretary of the Women’s Electoral Lobby, Ansett’s general manager double down on the company’s stance.
“Ansett has adopted a policy of only employing men as pilots,” the letter stated. “This does not mean that women cannot be good pilots, but we are concerned with the provision of the safest and most efficient air service possible. In this regard, we feel that an all-male pilot crew is safer than one in which the sexes are mixed.”
Despite the hurdles in her way, Deborah was thrilled when The Victorian Equal Opportunity Board ruled that Ansett’s refusal to hire her was unlawful. To add salt to Reg’s wound, they not only ordered damages of $14,500, they insisted Ansett take her into the next pilot training program.
While Ansett would appeal, that too was shot down in a Supreme Court and then High Court decision. On November 5, they were forced to hire Deborah.
With victory and her place in history won, Deborah’s first flight was from Alice Springs to Darwin on January 22, 1980. She didn’t look back.
Over the next 46 years, Deborah would fly across Australia and around the globe for Ansett, KLM, Jetstar, Tigerair and, most recently, Virgin. Now, at 72 and still flying, she is the longest-serving female airline pilot in the world.
Listen to The Australian Women’s Weekly Love Stories episode with Deb and Tom Lawrie wherever you get your podcasts.
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