In the late 1970s Deborah Lawrie was on track to realise a dream she'd had since she was a teenager.

She'd clocked around 2,500 flying hours, passed psychological tests and was feeling confident about the pilot application she'd just sent to Ansett.

But she hadn't factored in the company's firm views on female pilots.

"[Reg Ansett] didn't want them on his aircraft, that's for sure," Ms Lawrie tells RN's Life Matters.

"I received a letter to say that I'd been rejected outright."

But unbeknownst to the airline, Ms Lawrie also had firm views about being a pilot.

"I thought it would be a good idea to go and have a chat to the commissioner for equal opportunity," she says.

Sorry, this audio has expired Hear more from Deborah Lawrie and another trailblazing pilot, Beverly Bass

She went on to win a landmark sex discrimination claim against the airline.

When Ansett appealed against the ruling, the case travelled all the way up to the High Court, leading to an outcome that changed Australian legal and political history.

'Your earrings are going to be an issue'

Ms Lawrie flew solo for the first time at age 16.

She'd been paying for her own lessons, one a month, before she took over the controls.

She'd watched her hobbyist pilot father fly. She wasn't scared.

"It was the logical step," she says.

Her assuredness paints a picture of a female pilot that juxtaposes with the one Ansett management put forward at the time of her job application.

Sir Reginald Ansett was an impressive businessman, but his airline was initially averse to female pilots. ( Supplied: Sir Reginal Ansett Transport Museum )

Ms Lawrie remembers the company's arguments for why women were unsuitable for the job.

"We wouldn't be strong enough, we would panic, we'd act strangely every month," she recalls.

"[They said:] 'Your earrings are going to be an issue if you ever have to try and get out of an aeroplane.'

"But it was mainly a lack of suitability due to our disposition and anything associated with being female."

A 'very influential and very important' case

After her sex discrimination application was accepted by the Equal Opportunity Board in 1979, the board ordered Ansett to employ Ms Lawrie in its next pilot intake.

It was a landmark decision: the first sex discrimination complaint determined by an Australian Equal Opportunity Board.

Ansett appealed in the Supreme Court and then the High Court, where in 1980 its final appeal was dismissed.

"Ansett lost at every stage during this court case," Ms Lawrie says.

Beth Gaze, an equality and discrimination law specialist from the University of Melbourne, says the case was "very influential and very important in setting the direction of sex discrimination law early".

"To some extent it was an 'easy' case, because Ansett did not hide their reasons for not selecting her were because of her sex and possibility of future pregnancies," she says.

"But it was nevertheless an important early signal of the effect of the laws."

And she says it had a positive knock-on effect for other women.

"It required employers not to treat women less favourably than men in the same workforce," Professor Gaze says.

Ms Lawrie was finally employed with the airline and became the first female commercial pilot for a major airline in Australia.

After so much resistance from her employer, you may think the job would have lost some of its appeal.

But Ms Lawrie says the discrimination she faced from management wasn't reflected in the attitudes of the pilots working on the ground.

"Those guys were actually really very, very good to me," she says.

Lawrie remained with the company until moving to KLM in Europe, where being a female pilot was "no issue".

There were already about 15 women flying with the company.

"I wasn't unusual from the female point of view; I was unusual because I was an Australian," Ms Lawrie says.

Inspiring the next generations of female pilots

Deborah Lawrie (formerly Wardley) says she is humbled to have inspired the next generation of female pilots. ( Supplied: Her Place Women's Museum Australia )

Today Ms Lawrie is a captain and instructor with Tigerair, as well as a fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society and a master air pilot.

Her fight to get where she is hasn't been forgotten.

She's regularly approached by young girls and women who thank her for the significant path she paved.

"When the girls come up to me, it makes me feel very humble," she says.

"Many of them have done a lot of study and they've done theses and they've studied my court case.

"They actually know quite a lot about me already and that's a very strange feeling, I have to say. But it makes me feel very, very humble to know that they've gained inspiration from my case."

They've also gained a much more achievable career option.

"If [young women] are good enough they'll get a go; whereas, in the past some of them were better than good and still didn't get a fair go," Ms Lawrie says.

"I feel these days the airlines are actively trying to encourage women to join the ranks, and so if they put their head down and do the work they are going to get there."