I thought this might spark an interesting discussion.

[PLEASE keep in mind the following commentary is a general one -- there always are exceptions.]

In the U.S. business world, there is a phrase illustrating the paucity of women in senior executive positions (e.g., CEO, President, etc.) -- this would be 'the glass ceiling.' A woman can see through it yet doesn't often break through it and, because it is transparent, many folk would have us believe it doesn't exist. As evidence of the phrase's veracity, this statistic usually is cited: only two companies on the Fortune 500 list sport female CEOs (this is not to say we're poor sports, heh-heh).

The lengthy preamble above serves as introduction to what I call 'the flying glass ceiling' -- that is, the paucity of women in first class on U.S. domestic flights. I believe the two ceilings are related, on the following grounds.

First, however, the exceptions: most Hawaii flights are split fairly evenly between the genders (vacationing couples). Red-eye flights seem often to have a number of women in First (these seats not being so hotly contested). Flights before and after major holidays usually see a more even gender distribution in First.

1. Many occupants of domestic US first class cabins are there as a consequence of upgrades attained through FF programs (either miles or coupons). Because the latter typically are allocated on the basis of mileage status, it is more likely such seats go to males because men typically have higher mileage status. Whilst it is true I lack concrete evidence of this I think we all know intuitively this is true.

2. The Flying Glass Ceiling is a corollary of the Glass Ceiling in this way: many US companies typically fund first-class (even at discounted corporate) rates only for the most senior executives . . . who are overwhelming male.

Annecdotal backup: Herewith gender counts on my last six non-holiday, non-red-eye domestic US flights:

SFO-LAX: eight seats in first class; all men.
TPA-IAD: 24 seats in first class; three women, 21 men
IAD-SJC: 12 first class seats; one woman (moi), 11 men
TPA-DEN: 12 first class seats; two women, ten men
DEN-SFO: 12 first class seats; three women, nine men
LAX-SFO: eight seats in first class; one woman (not moi), 7 men

My last two red-eye LAX-TPA flights: a) 12 seats in first with 5 women and 7 men; b) 12 seats in first with 4 women; 5 men and three empty seats.

My last two flights to Hawaii were on a DC-10 and a 747 and they had so many seats in first I didn't bother to count but the gender mix was pretty even (a little bit like Noah's Ark -- wait, hey you rabbits, wait up; only two, only two).

Comments?

[This message has been edited by KatW (edited 01-27-99).]

[This message has been edited by KatW (edited 01-27-99).]

[This message has been edited by KatW (edited 01-27-99).]