I do really think it is awful what happened to these women.
Saying that, I don't think it is unique to Virgin. It's just they got caught. I also think that the anti-discrimination laws in Oz are a fair bit stricter than the rest of the world.
I am Cabin Crew for BA and also work part time in recruitment/selection. I have to say that BA is so 'PC' in it's recruitment it is unreal. But that isn't the case with all airlines here in the UK.
When we hold recruitment days for Cabin Crew we (the seconded crew) work alongside a professional recruitment agency. So if you are being interviewed for a cabin crew position with BA it is likely the interviewers are a mix of BA seconded crew and professional recruiters. We work to a 'specification'. ie. In the group interview you get a 'tick in the box' for certain behaviour types. In the 2-on-1 interview (the interviewers cannot be the same as the group interviewers), the interview is 'scenario' based. Every answer you give is written down in detail and each answer is 'rated'. If your 'score' passes and you got all the 'behavioural quality' boxes ticked from the group interview, you are in.
What you wear, what brand of shoes you have on don't really come into it. Your facial expressions, interaction, way you carry yourself do.
I remember on my initial cabin crew course with BA, there was a 51 year old woman in my course who had never flown before. She was an ex-policewoman, was brilliant in the course and was fantastic in her job until she had to retire at 55. (So never assume when you see an old gal on a BA flight that she has been there forever! Lol)
I did some interviewing a couple of weeks ago and was chatting with the agency recruiter I worked alongside. Co-incidentally, they also work alongside the recruiters at Qantas UK in a similar 'joint' situation as we have at BA. She was telling me she hates doing QF recruitment days because they aren't objective in their recruitment. She was saying that they would interview an older person, with flying experience, displaying all the qualities they are looking for.....Only to be vetoed by the QF recruiters with phrases like 'No No No...we want young, vibrant individuals. Did you see the shoes she was wearing!'.
That is just one example. Can you imagine what it must be like in the recruitment departments at the likes of Malaysian, Singapore or Cathay????