FlyingLawyer
Your point sums it up succinctly. BA and other airlines MUST view female applicants as a potential financial burden beyond that of male crew. The sex discrimination acts are all very well but in the long run they will make it less and less attractive to hire females. In my view this employee has done a disservice to every other BA employee.
In small businesses it is already being reflected in a recognition that they simply cannot afford to hire women of child bearing age and sooner or later the larger companies are going to have to find a rational approach that reflects the completeness of the male career record and the lessened experience of the female. It is not a criticism of the female employee but just a pragmatic acknowledgement of the facts of life.