Unequal

Saturday, March 02, 2024

This is Women’s History Month, and that’s cool. Last night, a PBS piece reopened my memories by covering early and evolving passenger aircraft technology, and the airline passenger business. Particularly, the then new role of Airline Stewardess. Some of my friends became early stewardesses and were envied. They routinely flew to exotic places, met and dated handsome pilots, and often married and moved into new life phases. Those were ladies who accomplished what little girls were programmed to do.

That PBS piece reveals a nasty back story to the enviable stewardess role, in a time when most airline passengers were men. The ladies’ work was to ensure men’s comfort. A stewardess’s training for her role was demanding, and it was abusive. She had to perform her stewardess work perfectly, and also, had always to appear beautiful. She had to be slender and physically fit, well-coiffed and perfectly dressed, always wearing specific makeup, and also well-mannered. Oh yes, she couldn’t be married; a stewardess had to be single.

There was more stress because upon turning 32 years old, a stewardess was considered too old for the role. Airlines pushed every birthday girl out of her job. Some of the early stewardesses were college graduates and felt abused. And some stewardesses were secretly married. The formally educated ladies, and those married to attorneys, began learning about unions. They openly started to question the airlines’ goals and personnel management. The work of those bold stewardesses initiated critical changes in the industry.

I’d go on, but you get it, and the story is easy to stream on PBS. What makes it more fascinating, is that the Stewardess history parallels more changes, beginning in the sixties, that altered women’s roles. Not enough, however, because America still lacks an Equal Rights Amendment.

Dear Friends: March’s videos will remind us of more history and revive our memories. Diana