A recent report on Bette Nash, a 71-year-old flight attendant, led Jane to do some research into the history of females in flight. As a frequent business traveler, you too, dear reader, have probably had ample opportunity to ponder the people who walk up and down the aisles of airplanes offering you beverages and providing instructions on how to buckle your seat belt. Well, Jane would like to reveal some of the skinny she has learned about the flight path of those perfectly-coiffed gals of the sky.
It is true that Jane frequently gives flight attendants a hard time due to the competition they provide for the eye of the hunky male business traveler (although, with Jane in the running, there's really no competition). But the reality is, Jane has a great deal of respect for the women (and the 20 percent who are men) who take wing every day.
It's been 77 years since the first female flight attendant strolled down the aisle. That was one Ellen Church-- the first Sky Girl hired by Boeing Air Transport (predecessor to United). According to former TWA flight attendant Tim Kirkwood, author of The Flight Attendant Job Finder and Career Guide, "Airline executives first hired women as flight attendants because so many businessmen were afraid to fly. They thought that potential male air travelers wouldn't admit they were afraid to fly if a bevy of young women were part of the in-flight crew. Pilots, however, loudly objected, saying they were too busy to look after "helpless" women crew members." Despite these lame objections, the concept of the Sky Girl took off.
Early Sky Girls had to be 25 or younger, five feet, four inches or shorter, and 115 pounds or less. (Up until World War II, they also had to be nurses). Oh, and they couldn't be pregnant nor married. In fact, in 1947, the first president of the union of flight attendants (formed in 1945) was forced to resign from her job and her presidency due to impending nuptials. Even if a Sky Girl chose career over marriage, she still had to resign upon reaching a ripe old mandatory retirement age of 30 to 35.
By the 1950s, Sky Girls had become stewardesses. And stewardesses were required to meet ever-stricter grooming standards. The Stepford Stewardesses had the same hair-dos, wore standardized make-up, and donned matching (and increasingly tight) uniforms.
Which leads us to the 1960s, the decade of the sexual revolution. That revolution reached the friendly skies as well, although Jane is most decidedly not talking about the Mile High Club. During the swinging '60s, stewardesses were actually marketed as sex objects. For example, long-defunct National Airlines advertised provocatively with its "Fly Me, I'm Cherry" campaign. Continental flight attendants really "moved their tails" for customers. Coffee, Tea or Me, a titillating book highlighting the exploits of young and wild "stews," became popular reading. Due to these stereotypes that were abundant in the popular culture of the day, stewardesses increasingly encountered that wonderful phenomenon known as sexual harassment.
But in 1964, the passage of the Civil Rights Act helped stewardesses overcome. The union used Title VII of the Act to challenge discriminatory policies based on gender, race, age, weight, pregnancy and marital status. Such policies were gradually stricken down during the next decade, leading to the range of body types, hair-dos and ages we see today.
The change of law helps account for the phenomenon that is Bette Nash. In November, the 71-year-old celebrated her 50th year in flight. She started with Eastern Airlines at the age of 21 and now works the US Airways Shuttle running between Washington, DC and New York. Nash is actually one of five flight attendants hired in the 1950s who still are on the job, according to the Association of Flight Attendants. By the way, of the AFA's current membership of 55,000, 39 percent are between the ages of 31 to 40; one-third are between 41 and 50; and 23 percent are 51 to 60 years old.
So, have female flight attendants really come a long way, baby? Post 9/11, the job is more stressful than ever. Planes are more crowded and more delayed than ever before in history. Such travel hassles lead to increasing numbers of unruly passengers. Simply put, the skies are not necessarily so friendly for the average flight attendant.
Then there's the pay…of lack thereof. The average flight attendant with a six-year tenure, according to the AFA, makes $24,700 a year plus travel benefits. Jane ponders, if the field of flight attendants was predominantly made up of men, would the pay scale be more generous?
