Femininity in Flight

A History of Flight Attendants

Nonfiction, History, Americas, United States, 20th Century
Cover of the book Femininity in Flight by Kathleen Barry, Daniel J. Walkowitz, Duke University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Kathleen Barry, Daniel J. Walkowitz ISBN: 9780822389507
Publisher: Duke University Press Publication: February 7, 2007
Imprint: Duke University Press Books Language: English
Author: Kathleen Barry, Daniel J. Walkowitz
ISBN: 9780822389507
Publisher: Duke University Press
Publication: February 7, 2007
Imprint: Duke University Press Books
Language: English

“In her new chic outfit, she looks like anything but a stewardess working. But work she does. Hard, too. And you hardly know it.” So read the text of a 1969 newspaper advertisement for Delta Airlines featuring a picture of a brightly smiling blond stewardess striding confidently down the aisle of an airplane cabin to deliver a meal.

From the moment the first stewardesses took flight in 1930, flight attendants became glamorous icons of femininity. For decades, airlines hired only young, attractive, unmarried white women. They marketed passenger service aloft as an essentially feminine exercise in exuding charm, looking fabulous, and providing comfort. The actual work that flight attendants did—ensuring passenger safety, assuaging fears, serving food and drinks, all while conforming to airlines’ strict rules about appearance—was supposed to appear effortless; the better that stewardesses performed by airline standards, the more hidden were their skills and labor. Yet today flight attendants are acknowledged safety experts; they have their own unions. Gone are the no-marriage rules, the mandates to retire by thirty-two. In Femininity in Flight, Kathleen M. Barry tells the history of flight attendants, tracing the evolution of their glamorized image as ideal women and their activism as trade unionists and feminists.

Barry argues that largely because their glamour obscured their labor, flight attendants unionized in the late 1940s and 1950s to demand recognition and respect as workers and self-styled professionals. In the 1960s and 1970s, flight attendants were one of the first groups to take advantage of new laws prohibiting sex discrimination. Their challenges to airlines’ restrictive employment policies and exploitive marketing practices (involving skimpy uniforms and provocative slogans such as “fly me”) made them high-profile critics of the cultural mystification and economic devaluing of “women’s work.” Barry combines attention to the political economy and technology of the airline industry with perceptive readings of popular culture, newspapers, industry publications, and first-person accounts. In so doing, she provides a potent mix of social and cultural history and a major contribution to the history of women’s work and working women’s activism.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

“In her new chic outfit, she looks like anything but a stewardess working. But work she does. Hard, too. And you hardly know it.” So read the text of a 1969 newspaper advertisement for Delta Airlines featuring a picture of a brightly smiling blond stewardess striding confidently down the aisle of an airplane cabin to deliver a meal.

From the moment the first stewardesses took flight in 1930, flight attendants became glamorous icons of femininity. For decades, airlines hired only young, attractive, unmarried white women. They marketed passenger service aloft as an essentially feminine exercise in exuding charm, looking fabulous, and providing comfort. The actual work that flight attendants did—ensuring passenger safety, assuaging fears, serving food and drinks, all while conforming to airlines’ strict rules about appearance—was supposed to appear effortless; the better that stewardesses performed by airline standards, the more hidden were their skills and labor. Yet today flight attendants are acknowledged safety experts; they have their own unions. Gone are the no-marriage rules, the mandates to retire by thirty-two. In Femininity in Flight, Kathleen M. Barry tells the history of flight attendants, tracing the evolution of their glamorized image as ideal women and their activism as trade unionists and feminists.

Barry argues that largely because their glamour obscured their labor, flight attendants unionized in the late 1940s and 1950s to demand recognition and respect as workers and self-styled professionals. In the 1960s and 1970s, flight attendants were one of the first groups to take advantage of new laws prohibiting sex discrimination. Their challenges to airlines’ restrictive employment policies and exploitive marketing practices (involving skimpy uniforms and provocative slogans such as “fly me”) made them high-profile critics of the cultural mystification and economic devaluing of “women’s work.” Barry combines attention to the political economy and technology of the airline industry with perceptive readings of popular culture, newspapers, industry publications, and first-person accounts. In so doing, she provides a potent mix of social and cultural history and a major contribution to the history of women’s work and working women’s activism.

More books from Duke University Press

Cover of the book Obeah and Other Powers by Kathleen Barry, Daniel J. Walkowitz
Cover of the book Health Care at Risk by Kathleen Barry, Daniel J. Walkowitz
Cover of the book National History and the World of Nations by Kathleen Barry, Daniel J. Walkowitz
Cover of the book The Space Station by Kathleen Barry, Daniel J. Walkowitz
Cover of the book Sociology Confronts the Holocaust by Kathleen Barry, Daniel J. Walkowitz
Cover of the book Fat Art, Thin Art by Kathleen Barry, Daniel J. Walkowitz
Cover of the book Childhood in the Promised Land by Kathleen Barry, Daniel J. Walkowitz
Cover of the book Cities Surround The Countryside by Kathleen Barry, Daniel J. Walkowitz
Cover of the book Adopted Territory by Kathleen Barry, Daniel J. Walkowitz
Cover of the book Transpacific Femininities by Kathleen Barry, Daniel J. Walkowitz
Cover of the book Beyond Prejudice by Kathleen Barry, Daniel J. Walkowitz
Cover of the book The Frank C. Brown Collection of NC Folklore by Kathleen Barry, Daniel J. Walkowitz
Cover of the book Biocapital by Kathleen Barry, Daniel J. Walkowitz
Cover of the book An Eye for the Tropics by Kathleen Barry, Daniel J. Walkowitz
Cover of the book Asia/Pacific as Space of Cultural Production by Kathleen Barry, Daniel J. Walkowitz
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy