In 1971 National Airlines released
this advertisement. It pictured a real flight attendant
and a new slogan: Fly me. “All over Florida, fly me.” Within months, the campaign included
Jo, Denise, and Laura. The airlines basically tried to sell
the stewardesses as sex objects. “I'm Dianne.” “Fly me.” “I’m Terry.
Fly me.” “I'm Maurica.
Fly me.” And it worked. After the Fly Me campaign National saw a 19% jump
in ticket sales. Soon, other airlines followed. This was one of the many ways
that the airline industry degraded flight attendants and discriminated against them
for decades.... until flight attendants got together
and pushed back. It was pretty spectacular
to be in a room full of other flight attendants who were saying enough is enough. And I was just not going to sit back
and allow this to continue. Flight attendants changed
the airline industry and became one of the first groups
in the US to fight discrimination in the workplace. They truly paved the way for working women
in the United States today and nobody knows about them. “This working jet set who breakfast in New York
and lunch in Phoenix.” Throughout the 50s and 60s,
becoming a flight attendant known as a stewardess
at the time was one of the most coveted jobs
for women. If you were a young woman and
your other employment opportunities were things like teacher or nurse or maybe a man’s secretary the idea you could be jet setting
around the country talking to men like Don Draper... “Where are you saying?” “Belvedere.” You can see how appealing
that might have been. The airlines sold an elite,
glamorous image of air travel... and relied on stewardesses
to deliver that message. “The smiling hostess or stewardess
who anticipates the needs of every passenger.” To make sure stewardesses match the standards that were
advertised to passengers. Airlines came up with incredibly strict
hiring practices. “To qualify on most airlines... She must be healthy, single, and
between the ages of 21 and 28.” “She must be between 5’2” and 5’6”
in height and of normal weight.” You had to have straight teeth,
clear skin, no glasses. You had to be extremely slim. When I first applied had a male interview at that time
who measured my hips. Paula Mariedaughter flew over 3 million miles as a stewardess and model for TWA. And it was pretty much
the standard fare in terms of how they treated
young women. The process was designed to make
the job feel exclusive. One ad for Eastern Airlines
even presented the losers... showcasing that they pass up
around 19 girls before getting one that qualifies. “They’re probably good enough to get
a job anywhere they want.” “But at Eastern, we're very choosy about whom we let serve you on a plane.” “She's awkward.” “She wears glasses.” But the biggest one was... “Oh! N-aww.
She's married.” You couldn't be married. A male business traveler
could get on the airplane... look around and know that
all of these stewardesses were theoretically available. That's where age limits
played a big role, too. Airlines wanted to keep
the workforce young and some forced women to retire
as young as 27. A lot of these hiring restrictions
were explicit but there was one standard that was unwritten,
yet consistently enforced. You had to be white. They did not want us on board. The fight to take down
these industry standards started with black women
like Patricia Banks. My name was Patricia Noisette Banks Edmiston... I became the first black flight attendant on a commercial aircraft in 1960. I saw an advertisement for the Grace Downs Air Career School
and I said oh wow, this sounds great. I think I'd like to do this. And I always thought it would be interesting
to travel around the world and see what other places were like. And I was accepted into the school. Patricia was the only black student at Grace Downs Air Career School. After completing the program in 1956 she interviewed with TWA,
Mohawk, and Capital which would later merge with United
for a stewardess position. But Patricia never heard back. Other people were getting responses and I wasn't getting any response whatsoever. It was painful because I kept wondering: Well, what's wrong here? And then a chief stewardess saw me outside of the school
and she looked at me... and she said, “Pat, I hate to see you
go through this... but the airlines do not hire Negroes.” Patricia filed a case with the New York State Commission
Against Discrimination to investigate Capital airlines
for racist hiring practices. During the process I had a lot of threats of
being raped, murdered. I had the police involved at certain times
during the beginning. It was not easy, but I just feel it was something that I had to do. I had to do. The commission decided that the airline had discriminated against Patricia
by maintaining a policy that barred black applicants
from employment. In 1960 Capital was ordered to reverse
that policy and hire Patricia. The respondent Capital Airlines Inc. shall cease and desist from refusing to hire
or employ complainant Patricia Banks as a flight hostess
because of her color and maintaining a policy of barring Negroes from employment because of their color in all flight capacities including that of flight hostess. By winning her case she became one of the first black
commercial flight attendants. I wanted to work hard to break this barrier. It was something I was doing for my people because I didn't care whether
I got hired or not. But some young black woman
was going to fly. Patricia's victory was the beginning. “Congress passes the most sweeping civil rights bill ever to be written into the law.” A few years later, when the Civil Rights Act
became federal law employment discrimination
on the basis of race and sex was finally prohibited under Title VII of the act. More black women began to challenge airlines for the racism they experienced in the industry... and one by one, they secured their right to fly. By 1965, there were 50 black stewardesses working at 7 of the largest US carriers. Title VII was a turning point
for stewardesses all around. The same legislation that put an end
to racist practices... became a tool for stewardesses to put an end to sexist policies at work. Title seven was mostly put in place to try and fight racism in employment but the flight attendants were the first people to see that like,
Oh, they could use this to fight sex discrimination in employment. Their persistent legal action
kicked off a stewardess rebellion. In the first 18 months of Title VII becoming law stewardesses lodged more than
100 employment discrimination cases and used those rulings to challenge airlines
directly with the help of their union. One of those challenges was launched in 1965 by Betty Green Bateman who was fired after Braniff Airlines discovered she had been secretly married
for more than a year. After months of fighting with the airline... she was finally allowed to keep her job. The Bateman case was the start
of the sort of dominoes falling with the marriage rules. The lawsuit forced multiple airlines to overturn their marriage rules. But even as more and more women
fought and won their cases the airlines doubled down on
the sexy stewardess stereotype. “Remember what it was like
before Southwest Airlines?” “You didn't have hostesses in hot pants.” Around this time, the industry had
economic problems so they decided to lean into the strategy
that had worked. They debuted new ads and uniforms that contradicted what the stewardesses
were fighting for. In one campaign called “The Airstrip”
by Braniff Airlines a uniform was designed
for flight attendants to shed their clothes
piece by piece during in-flight service. The airlines were trying to make money
off of implying that we were readily available
in all sorts of ways. And that was just not acceptable. But with the Women's Liberation Movement there was so much pressure
and so much encouragement among the women I flew with to say: This is not right, it's not fair. We've got to do something. And they did. Stewardesses started some of the first independent, women-led unions
in US history. They also formed groups like
Stewardesses for Women's Rights and tackled age restrictions marriage policies, uniforms,
and weight limits. Though much of the mainstream movement focused on white women at the time,
black stewardesses were fighting racist appearance standards
in the industry, too. Like one United stewardess who was fired for wearing her hair
in an Afro successfully sued and forced the airline
to apply its regulation equally without regard to race. Many other policies would take
decades to overturn including regulations that grounded attendants
when they became pregnant or weight restrictions, which in one case
took a 17 year long legal battle against American Airlines to finally undo. As restrictions changed, so did
the makeup of the industry. Older, married, and
black stewardesses increasingly joined the profession. The legal fights had altered the airline industry... and taken together, they would also alter the future of women's labor in the US. The rights that these women won
have become case law about sex discrimination in employment. The stewardess cases have been used in
gender discrimination cases in some LGBTQ cases... But that all built on a basis of
stewardess cases, their efforts. Which, you know, were back in the
1960s and 70s still have in effect today. Those of us that lived in earlier decades we were seeking the best possible reality for us. I don't think we could ever go back
to the way it was. The history of what happened, frankly it was never, ever talked about. But it was a beginning. Thanks so much for watching. My name is Halley,
I’m the producer of this episode of Missing Chapter. So much research and reporting went into this episode and one fact that we didn't get to share is that when no-marriage policies were rampant in the airline industry... it’s estimated that up to 30% of stewardesses
were secretly married. Just another one of the many ways that they challenged sex discrimination at work. We pick stories like this for Missing Chapter because it's important to talk about
underreported history. That's also why it's so important
that we keep this work free. But advertising alone isn't enough to support it. That's because weeks of work
go into videos here at Vox... scripting, interviewing, editing animating, you name it, we do it. So if you'd like to help keep this work free
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