Contributions of Cabin Crew (Aviation for Women Jan/Feb 2023)
Aviation for Women Magazine
Jan/Feb 2023
Liz Booker
In 1996, after almost three years serving together on a Coast Guard cutter that deployed across the North Atlantic and Caribbean Sea, my best friend and I parted ways in Saint Martin headed for new adventures. I was going to Officer Candidate School and she was off to Trans World Airlines Flight Attendant training. This was a woman who had maneuvered small boats on the high seas, cared for thousands of Haitian and Cuban migrants, supervised young Seamen in the maintenance of our 270’ ship, and saved dozens of lives. As we exchanged letters over the next few months, I complained about my pitiful performance at sword manual, while she was repeatedly scolded for errant lipstick. Of course, she breezed through the more critical aspects of her training, and I knew if there was ever an emergency on one of her flights, she’d handle it with aplomb.
More recently, I had the pleasure of meeting two former Pan Am stewardesses who regaled me with stories of glamour and adventure, and the inherent sexism associated with their roles. They talked about strict weight and size restrictions, and the tricks they employed to maintain them, along with uniform regulations mandating girdles and panty hose. They still wear their uniforms with pride at aviation events and epitomize the elegance and charm of their training.
Their stories were reminiscent of those I’d read in Casey Grant’s Stars in the Sky, a history of Black stewardesses, who not only conformed to the many strict criteria, but also confronted racism from their crews and passengers. You can find my interview with Grant on the Aviatrix Book Review podcast, Season 2, Episode 3. While Grant’s book highlights the experiences of Black ‘Air Hostesses’, University of Hawai’i Anthropology Professor Christine Reiko Yano tells the stories of Japanese women recruited by Pan Am, “to enhance the airline’s image of exotic cosmopolitanism and worldliness,” in Airborne Dreams: “Nisei” Stewardesses and Pan American World Airways.
Up in the Air: The Real Story of Life Aboard the World’s Most Glamourous Airline, gives us a British perspective by WWII survivor Betty Reigel, while journalist and travel writer Julia Cooke, who was the daughter of a Pan Am executive, chronicles the stories of several stewardesses from 1966-1975 in Come Fly the World: The Jet Age Story of Pan Am, including their support of U.S. Vietnam War soldiers and Operation Babylift, when two thousand children were evacuated from Saigon.
For a more contemporary look at cabin crew life, we have Cruising Attitude: Tales of Crashpads, Crew Drama, and Crazy Passengers at 35,000 Feet by Heather Poole, who also wrote a popular weekly travel column for Gadling.com entitled Galley Gossip. Another author who started her writing journey in the air, Ann Hood has published over a dozen books along with Fly Girl: A Memoir. If you’re looking for humor, there’s Around the World in a Bad Mood: Confessions of a Flight Attendant by Rene Foss, and the 2018 best-selling thriller novel The Flight Attendant, by Chris Bohjalian, which is also an HBO Max series starring Kaley Cuoco, offers a suspenseful fictional twist.
In September 2023, the Aviatrix Book Club will discuss The Great Stewardess Rebellion: How Women Launched a Workplace Revolution at 30,000 Feet, by Nell McShane Wulfhart. Join us on Facebook for this and all the great books on our reading list or sign up for the Literary Aviatrix Newsletter at the Aviatrix Book Review website where you’ll find over 600 books featuring women in aviation, including several more celebrating the contributions of our cabin crews.
