Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!aero-c!nadel From: muffy@remarque.berkeley.edu (Muffy Barkocy) Newsgroups: soc.feminism Subject: Woman fired for not wearing makeup Message-ID: Date: 12 May 91 23:03:15 GMT Sender: root@agate.berkeley.edu (Charlie Root) Distribution: soc Organization: Natural Language Incorporated Lines: 44 Approved: nadel@aerospace.aero.org Originator: nadel@aerospace.aero.org >From the Sunday SF Examiner: Airline ticket agent fined for refusing to use makeup She says she'll sue carrier over policy BOSTON - A ticket agent for Continental Airlines was fired because she refused to wear makeup under a new policy intended to improve the carrier's image. Teresa Fischette, who was fired last week from her part-time job at Logan International Airport, said she plans to go to court to fight for her job. "I think this is a women's choice issue and a civil rights issue," Fischette said Friday. "I want people to think about what is happening here and write to Continental. ...And I want my job back." On May 1, Continental implemented a new "appearance standard" requiring all female ground workers to wear makeup, said Art Kent, the airline's vice president for corporate communicatoins. "I personally have never worn makeup," Fischette said. "I have nothing against makeup, but I don't use it." Sarah Wunsch, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, said Fischette, 38, was considered a highly professional, personable and attractive worker. Fischette, who contacted the ACLU, said airlines have a "bad history" of workplace restrictions on women." "The makeup is just the last vestige of that old idea that women have to look glamorous in the workplace," she said. Before the airline dismissed her, Fischette said she was offered another job, at a "non-customer contact position on the ramp, throwing bags in a place where I would be out of sight." The personal appearance code the company adopted was developed by an employees group, Kent said. "It was, in fact, the women in the professional standards committe -- Miss Fischette's peers -- who insisted that a minimum amount of makeup be included in the standard," he said.