In spite of outstanding, discriminatory practices, the stewardess job was well desired. Appealing to young middle class women, it was an occupation that offered more than a paycheck, a job created by a woman for women; it offered a sense of identity, belonging, escape and autonomy. On the line, stewardesses shaped a distinctive work culture and representation of the goals of workingwomen, a combination that culminated with the formation of the Association of Flight Attendants (an independent union). As stewardesses of the 1960s shared a unique coming of age together that spanned 1950s expectations about the roles of women and 1960s possibilities, realities and consequences of civil rights and liberation. Over this period, motivated by the spirit of civil disturbance and the power of resistance and civil rights, these women came to challenge UAL's employment policies and practices, successfully charging discrimination and changing both employment policy and practice. The story of the participation of United Airlines stewardesses in this transformation, during a politically and socially tumultuous era in American History, represents an interesting and important chapter in the history and culture of workingwomen.
In 1930, Boeing Air Transport (BAT) became the first airline carrier to hire stewardesses. With the exception of rare renegades like Amelia Earhart and Bessie Coleman, women were restricted from the sky, disabled by the social limitations of their gender. When approached by nurse Ellen Church (who as the legend goes, always dreamed of being a pilot) with the seemingly far-reaching idea of hiring women to take care of passengersâ needs in the sky, Boeingâs San Francisco Manager, Steve A. Stimpson, found himself confronted with a challenge.5 The idea of equipping planes with stewardesses appealed to Stimpson personally, but he questioned whether or not it would appeal to the rest of the company, the pilots, the pilotsâ wives, and most importantly to the paying customers.6 In a wire sent to headquarters, to BAT President W.A. Patterson, Stimpson stated:
It strikes me that there would be a great psychological punch to having young women stewardesses or couriers·and I am certain that there are some mighty good ones available. I have in mind a couple of graduate nurses that would make exceptional stewardesses·Imagine the psychology of having young women as regular members of the crew. Imagine the national publicity we could get from it, and the value that they would be to us not only in the neater and nicer method of serving food, but looking out for the passengers welfare.7
This wire introduced the gendered concept of stewardesses with implication that the employment of women's bodies on airplanes could sell the idea of flight to an apprehensive public. Taking great care to insist that these sky girls would be of the best quality, not the flapper kind of a girl. Sky Girls would be dressed in modest and professional uniforms, adorning their nurse's smocks in the sky; they would be professional and represent the essence of the experience of flight and become the trusting beautiful face of the industry.8
Church and Stimpson created the first qualifications for BATâs sky girls, known as the Original Eight.9 The Original Eight were nurses, not over twenty-five-years of age, weighing 115 pounds or less, and not over five feet four inches tall.10 These criteria and specifically the weight and height restrictions had much to do with the shape and limits of early 12-passenger planes, which had narrow aisles and low ceilings and could not carry extra weight.11 Inez Keller Fuite, one of the Original Eight, recalled being dropped off once by a pilot who couldnât get enough altitude to get over the mountain outside of Salt Lake City. He flew back and dropped me off·I only weighed 115 pounds, but the plane did make it over the mountain.12 The public's trust in the infant airline industry was fragile and the early nursing requirement for sky girls assured passengers that the women were employed with a sense of safety and professionalism. Mid-May, 1930, the Original Eight took wing, and although first confronted with hostility from their pilot counterparts, were an instant hit with their passengers. By the end of their three-month trial, sky girls had established their importance to and permanency in the growing airline industry and were renamed stewardesses. With permanency came two other complicated rules; stewardesses had to be single, quit when they married and promise to retire by age 32.13 Throughout the following decades, the shape of society, the planes, and the airline industry changed, but many of these early policies remained in practice through the 1960s and on into the 1970s.
Among the strict appearance requirements, the no-marriage ban and the age thirty-two retirement policies were practiced to maintain and promote an image of young, beautiful, and single women. Both of these policies also facilitated high rate of turnover within the group, making it difficult for stewardesses to unite in negotiating efforts to seek out benefits packages and improved working conditions; for a period of about 30 years these policies enabled management to control the destiny of the occupation.Ê From the 1930s through the 1950s these restrictions mirrored cultural expectations of American society and were not deemed unacceptable by the majority. Many women wanted this job much more than others in spite of the limitations, because it offered exciting travel benefits and membership to a group with elite social status, and so stewardess candidates willingly complied.
5 Frank J. Taylor, High Horizons: Daredevil Flying Postman to Modern Magic Carpet: The United Air Lines Story. (New York: McGraw Hill, 1962) 70.
6 Forty Year Skygirl Salute.ä United Air Lines Shield. Volume 39. No. 5. (May 1970), 3-5.
7 Frank J. Taylor, High Horizons: Daredevil Flying Postman to Modern Magic Carpet: The United Air Lines Story. (New York: McGraw Hill, 1962) 70.
8 Ibid., 71.
9 Ibid., 71.
10 Ellis Crawford, Margaret Arnott, Harriet Fry, Jessie Carter, Cornelia Peterson, Alva Johnson, and Inez Keller, and together they became known as the Original Eight.
11 Frank J. Taylor, High Horizons: Daredevil Flying Postman to Modern Magic Carpet ö The United Air Lines Story. (New York: MCGraw Hill, 1962): 71.
12 Gwen Mahler Legacy of the Friendly Skies : A Pictorial History of United Airlines Stewardesses and Flight attendants (Kansas: Leawood, 1991): 47.
13 McLaughlin, Helen. E. Footsteps in the Sky: An Informal Review of U.S. Airlines Inflight service 1920s-Present.Ê (CA: Aviation Book Company, 1994): 19.
14 Georgia Panter Neilsen, From Sky Girl to Flight Attendant: Women and the Making of a Union. (New York: ILR Press Cornell University, 1982): 19
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