In October 1958, a Boeing 707 airplane—the first commercially widespread jetliner—took off from New York en route to Paris, and with it launched the Jet Age. As Americans began to fly in far greater numbers in the 1960s, the airlines introduced new marketing campaigns to entice travelers. And stewardesses, as flight attendants were then called, were the faces, and bodies, around which airlines built their brands.
In the decades following World War II, airline advertising and popular media often featured stewardesses, portraying them as the consummate hostess or the plucky, “girl-next-door” type—personable, attractive, poised—and eligible. Advertisements targeted businessmen, who were the airline industry’s most frequent fliers. But with the Jet Age—and the expansion of the commercial airline customer base—came the marketing evolution of the stewardess as glamorous and cosmopolitan. Advertisements continued to play off of flight attendants’ presumed nurturing instincts—“think of her as your mother,” ran the tagline on one American Airlines promotion, featuring a model curled up in her seat—while also promising effortless, personalized service. Their stewardesses, Eastern Air Lines asserted, were “more eager than ever to spread cheer,” while Braniff International promised “constant attention” from their flight attendants.
As highly trained safety professionals working in physically demanding roles, the airline industry’s women navigated sexist and racist work environments with draconian requirements around their marriage status, physical appearance and age—many flight attendants faced forced retirement as early as 32 years old. It took the combined efforts of flight attendants on many fronts—through their unions, where they sought leadership positions, in the courts, where they brought discrimination cases against airlines and through protests and coordination with women’s rights advocacy groups—to challenge and begin to change these restrictions.
By the mid-1960s, flight attendants encountered marketing campaigns and dress codes that increasingly suggested their sexual availability, particularly in the advertising presented by regional airlines. In the early 1970s, Southwest Airlines dressed its in-flight staff in short, tight hot pants, while National launched the “Fly Me” campaign, in which flight attendants offered that customers “fly them” to various locations. “It had a sexual overtone to it,” said Casey Grant, a 35-year Delta Airlines veteran. “‘Fly Me’ how? What are you going to do, get on top of me? We didn't like that slogan at all.”
This messaging persisted even as flight attendants fought discrimination and challenged the law to gain workplace protections and respect. “The reason that some of us started to stand up and speak out,” former flight attendant Patricia Ireland—and eventual president of the National Organization for Women—told American Experience, “was because we felt like our heads were going to explode.”
What follows is a gallery of jet-age advertising alongside the words of the women whose lived reality belied Madison Avenue fantasy. “Being a flight attendant still had one foot, maybe one and a half in the past,” said Ann Hood, who joined the profession in 1978. “We were still perceived as glorified waitresses and/or sex kittens, but at the same time, we were fighting for equal pay, rights as a woman, rights on the job. So it was glamorous, it was sexist, it was exciting, it was fun, it was exhausting. Everything about it was a contradiction.”
The airlines wanted cute young stewardesses on their aircraft. They didn't want a married woman. They wanted to cater to their business executives. And in fact, we had flights that were called executive flights. Only men could buy a ticket on those planes…They had three stewardesses on board, all in short little skirts going up and down the aisle, and we passed out cigars.” - Celeste Lansdale Brodigan
We had to be FAA approved on seven different aircraft, but we also had to be [airline] approved in the service on those aircraft. It was everything from how to walk up and down the spiral staircase on a 747 with a tray of drinks, to how to evacuate in water, to doing CPR, to fixing a broken coffee maker, to fixing the projector for the movie, to putting on makeup, to delivering a baby, to mixing cocktails, to putting out a fire on the plane.” - Ann Hood
One of the questions we would be asked in an interview or even during training is, ‘Can a flight attendant have a bad day?’ And you're thinking, ‘Well, sure, everybody has bad days.’ But before you can even answer, the instructor or the interviewer says, ‘Flight attendants can have a bad day. They just can't show it.’” - Ann Hood
A stewardess was supposed to be there for your comfort, was clearly not supposed to be real bright. It was particularly galling because at Pan Am you had to be a college graduate and you had to know at least two languages. I had three—English, German and Spanish—and I can still evacuate an airplane in German.” - Patricia Ireland
The airlines were concerned about your measurements. If your measurements weren't right, you wouldn't be hired. In one interview I had to get on a scale and turn around slowly so that the guy could get a good look at my body, like prized cattle.” - Patricia Ireland
You have to be prepared, you have to be poised, you have to be confident, but people expect you to also be a little flirty and sexy…Yet here we are on the front lines, winning rights for women, not just in our job, but in general.” - Ann Hood
Pay was very low. When I was hired, they were giving you this glamorous job and the ability to travel, they didn't have to give you pay. So they kept the pay as low as they could…When I was hired, we had to buy our own uniforms.” - Celeste Lansdale Brodigan
The notion or the stereotype of flight attendants being waitresses in the sky, glorified waitresses is one that really bugs me still. Sure, we serve food…That is a part of the job. But we are on the plane for safety and to help people if there's an emergency. And the training we do for safety and emergency situations far outweighs how to serve meal trays.” - Ann Hood
I thought being a flight attendant was really good training to be a feminist activist. For one thing, I learned how to go without meals, to have an irregular schedule, to go without sleep…The stewardesses, as we were then, played a major role in launching the women's movement. They challenged the restrictions on age, the ability to get married. They challenged weight restrictions. They challenged that you couldn't be pregnant.” - Patricia Ireland
As a flight attendant, as a stewardess, the idea was that you were there for the pleasure of the men who were flying. And that carried over to, well, maybe you're there for their pleasure off the airplane too.” - Patricia Ireland
Sexism wasn't a word that was floated around back then…We knew what men would do to be able to get a sneaky feel in, but we didn't label it as sexism. And you knew how to smack his hand, step on his foot. We had our own way of retaliating while staying within the professional guidelines. We were determined to be there, we were not leaving. So we took the punches, but we took them with a smile and we took it with professionalism.” - Casey Grant
You had some people who were just outrageous in how they treated us… We had to make it funny because it was a defense mechanism to not feel hurt, to not feel embarrassed, to not feel less than. If we could laugh about it, then the joke was on them. I had this flight attendant persona, and I was inside there safe and sound. And whatever was happening to this flight attendant, I was going to just blow it off because I liked the job.” - Patricia Ireland
Even though the job became sexualized, and we became the best advertising for airlines—stewardesses in miniskirts and doing things called the air striptease, changing clothes in the aisle as part of a uniform—even while all that was going on, we were fighting. Fighting for better pay, fighting to keep our job, fighting for rights that women everywhere were fighting for and we were winning. Being a flight attendant is really the history of women in the workforce.” - Ann Hood
Note: Interviews have been lightly edited for clarity.
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