Here is a question that has probably never crossed your mind: how woke is aviation? Never, that is, until now. A “political-correctness row” has reportedly errupted at the Australian airline Qantas, whose staff have been advised of language that is more respectful of the LGBTI community and others, as part of a “Spirit of Inclusion” month.

According to reports, an “information booklet” instructed male employees to avoid “manterrupting” – cutting off female colleagues – and told all staff to say “partner” rather than husband or wife, because “language can make groups of people invisible. For example, the use of the term chairman can reinforce the idea that leaders are always men.” The “booklet” also warned against unconscious colonialist bias when discussing Australian history.

The former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott weighed in to the row, calling Qantas the “corporate thought police”. But, says Qantas spokesman Andrew McGinnes, there was no such booklet: “We shared some language suggestions developed by the Diversity Council of Australia on our corporate intranet to help start a conversation about the impact language can have on an inclusive workplace.” But why is this even on Qantas’s radar? Why has an airline started talking like an ultra-hip post-colonial gender studies graduate?

Let’s take a look at the industry’s previous and see what we conclude. Last month, the travel group Tui (formerly Thomson Airways) reported the largest gender pay gap of any major UK company, with female staff paid less than half the salary of their male colleagues. The company said this was largely because few women hold highly paid roles such as pilot or engineer. So that’s comforting. And, across the industry, female cabin crew are still routinely directed to wear, along with make-up, restrictive pencil skirts and heels that leave some with bunions and back-ache.

However, female crew at British Airways have successfully challenged their dress-code and can now wear trousers. And, last month, easyJet’s new chief executive, Johan Lundgren, took a voluntary £34,000 pay cut to match the salary of his female predecessor, Carolyn McCall. But it’s hard to escape the feeling that this is just tinkering around the edges when the emperors of aviation have such a long way to go.