American Experience (1988) s36e02 Episode Script

1
ANNOUNCER:
The following program
contains the use
of racial epithets
in historical context
and to recount
personal experiences.
Viewer discretion is advised.
♪
♪
CASEY GRANT:
Stewardesses were glamorous.
They were beautiful.
They were poised.
It just looked like
the world was theirs.
And I wanted that life.
I just can't wait
to see all the places
I've heard so much about:
Paris, Rome, Bangkok,
Buenos Aires
♪
ANN HOOD:
How many small town girls
like me
looked at a flight attendant
and thought,
"That's the best job
in the world"?
MAN:
Rosemary,
I'd like to talk to you
about your coffee service.
You've been pouring
from too high.
Oh?
JULIA COOKE:
No other job offered
as much freedom,
with such a high cost
of conformity.
♪
MARY PAT LAFFEY INMAN:
We were not expected
to have opinions.
We were to serve
and look glamorous.
JOAN RIVERS:
Where is the stewardess
where a woman wants her, huh?
Huh?
Nowhere, busy with the men.
Coffee, tea, what you will,
hello, hello, hello.
Hey, uh, how 'bout
some coffee?
And make it hot.
CELESTE LANSDALE BRODIGAN:
Selling sex instead of safety.
(soft chuckle)
Oh, excuse us.
Excuse us.
Remember what it was like
before there was somebody else
up there who loved you?
Remember?
I hated that.
KATIE BARRY:
Airlines hired these women
who are independent and curious.
And it's amazing to me
that airlines would expect that
they would be a docile group,
because why would they be?
(sign chimes)
TWA has been shut down for
more than a month
by a strike of stewards
and stewardesses.
♪
SONIA PRESSMAN FUENTES:
I don't think we realized
what a revolutionary thing
we were doing.
PATRICIA IRELAND:
Stewardesses played
a major role
in launching
the women's movement.
DOROTHY SUE COBBLE:
They took up economic issues,
but they also focused
on issues having to do with
appearance, grooming,
and control over women's bodies.
VICKI VANTOCH:
How did these women go from
conforming to gender stereotypes
to fighting for gender equality
in the workforce?
(protestors speaking
indistinctly)
KATHLEEN HEENAN:
I was a TWA flight attendant.
But I was an activist
in the change.
I was there.
(crowd chanting)
♪
(car engine rumbling)
(plane engine buzzing
in distance)
INMAN:
One of my best friends,
she had a brother
who bought this Corvette.
(car engine revving)
We would be out on the road
and she'd say,
"Well, where do you want to go?"
 
And I would say,
"Let's go to the airport."
HOOD:
When I was in high school,
I convinced my friend Nancy
that we should go on a trip
when our junior year ended.
And that June, off we went.
I shopped for a week
for the outfit I was going to
wear on the flight.
(indistinct chatter)
UNDRA MAYS:
My first flight,
I was about eight or nine.
We were all dressed up;
socks with the little lace
all around the edges of it.
 
I thought,
"This is just like Easter."
♪
I'd been on boats before
and I thought,
well, this was going to be
similar to a boat.
♪
When we started to roll,
"Oh, this is more
like a rollercoaster."
♪
HOOD:
I remember the takeoff.
(ringing sound)
I remember playing with the air.
You know,
I had my own little vent,
gently putting a breeze
on my face.
♪
I couldn't believe
when they gave me food.
They put my breakfast down
and it was delicious.
Scrambled eggs, and those little
sausages, and a fruit plate.
And I just was dazzled from the
minute I stepped on that plane.
♪
MAYS:
I thought,
"Oh, this has to be
what heaven feels like.
♪
I've got to be close to heaven."
It was the most beautiful thing
I had experienced,
just being in the air.
♪
(seagulls squawking)
♪
(indistinct talking)
COOKE:
So many of our advances
as humans come from travel.
Go!
(propellers whirring)
COOKE:
It is an incredibly
human impulse,
and yet it was really restricted
for women until the 20th
century.
♪
(crowd applauding)
These new technologies
came around,
enabling humans to move around,
and women really wanted to be
a part of it.
♪
HOOD:
Ellen Church
was a registered nurse,
but she got her pilot's license.
She knew that aviation
was the future.
(propellers whirring)
TIEMEYER:
But because airlines
refused to countenance
that a woman could be a pilot,
Ellen's idea was,
"All right, if they're not going
to let me be a pilot,
at least maybe they'd let me be
a flight attendant."
(engine running)
KATIE BARRY:
In the late 1920s,
you see an experimental era,
where some airlines
are trying out different models
of cabin service.
The most obvious model
would be Pullman porters.
(train bell ringing)
MIA BAY:
But there's a longstanding
association
between technological know-how
and white supremacy.
And they do not think
that Black people
have the kind of authority
to kind of help people
through the challenges
of flying.
COBBLE:
So the airlines thought,
"We probably want white men
because this might be a position
where you would get promoted
into management."
♪
HOOD:
Ellen Church went to
San Francisco
to the office of what would
later become United Airlines.
And she went to an executive
and she said,
"I think if there were nurses
on airplanes,
"more people would fly.
"You're trying to
attract passengers,
"but people think
it's dangerous.
"People get sick.
"A nurse would be
a calming person
and we'd be able to take care
of passengers."
(engine whirring)
Planes weren't pressurized,
so they flew under 10,000 feet.
And that means you feel
every bump.
It was always turbulent.
VANTOCH:
There were no
circulation systems.
So you could smell hot oil,
and the disinfectant used
to clean up
after airsick passengers.
(indistinct chatter)
To go from coast to coast,
it took 28 hours at minimum.
Often planes would get grounded
in the middle of nowhere,
passengers would have to wait
for several days
until the weather cleared.
It was really a big adventure,
(chuckling): instead of a
reliable way to travel.
TIEMEYER:
It was a harrowing thing,
to fly.
You couldn't get a life
insurance policy to cover you
if you flew on airplanes
because the death rate
was something
that no one wanted to insure.
♪
BARRY:
The idea is that
if you're encouraging people
to fly, especially men,
at a moment when flying
can seem very scary (laughs)
if you put young white women
on an airplane,
then they're going to think,
"Well, if these young white
women are fine with flying,
I should be fine with
flying too."
♪
COOKE:
Ellen Church was convinced that
women would want to do this,
and she was absolutely accurate.
They showed up in huge numbers.
♪
COBBLE:
The focus on only hiring women
had a lot of advantages,
the airline executives thought.
 
TIEMEYER:
The airlines started to realize
the passengers
were more attracted to having
a woman do the job
(chuckling):
for the charm that she brought,
the attractiveness
that she brought
to an otherwise exceptionally
unpleasant experience.
♪
(ship whistle blaring)
(passengers cheering)
IRELAND:
During World War II,
women had worked in all kinds
of non-traditional jobs.
(cheers and applause)
When the soldiers
and sailors came home,
there was a concerted effort
to push women
out of the workplace.
(band playing, crowd cheering)
MAN: March of the troops!
Masses of manpower!
IRELAND:
Women who were poor
or women of color ended up
going back to lower-paying jobs.
Middle-class women were expected
to go home.
♪
Margaret, I'm home!
MARGARET:
We're in the kitchen.
IRELAND:
Growing up in the 1950s,
it was very clear to me
what women's roles
were supposed to be.
FILM NARRATOR:
The American home.
Today, it is perhaps the most
important job in the world.
IRELAND:
It was reflected in television,
and it was reflected
in the books I read.
It was reflected
in the examples used
in my school lessons.
SHOW ANNOUNCER:
"Father Knows Best."
I absorbed that.
I didn't question it at all.
It was just the way things were.
(dog barking)
GRANT:
As a child, I used to dream
of being a nurse.
And then, of course,
I wanted to be a mother.
We were a happy family.
So I thought, "Ooh, that would
be a nice thing to do"--
have children,
and have a husband,
and the picket fence
and all that type of thing.
♪
FUENTES:
There were all kinds
of different expectations
for men and women.
They were basically considered
two different types
of human beings.
♪
Men were supposed to be
the leaders,
the presidents,
the newspaper reporters,
people who took dangerous jobs,
people who took important jobs.
Women were expected to
get married and raise a family.
But, before that,
it was expected that
they would work
at a number of
lower level jobs--
secretary
(telephone ringing)
clerk
librarian, teacher--
they were not expected
to have careers.
My parents were opposed
to my going to college.
Their expectations for me
were to get married
and have a family.
They felt that
the fact that I had been
a good student,
was already going to make it
harder for me to find a husband.
♪
FILM NARRATOR:
Hm, is it that late?
Dad will be here any minute.
Better tell Mother
she's needed in the kitchen.
Brother is spending an hour
before dinner
catching up on his homework.
BRODIGAN:
My parents could only afford
to send one child to college
and that was my brother.
FILM NARRATOR:
Now, mother and daughter put the
finishing touches on the dinner.
That was the way parents thought
at the time.
My brother would go to college.
I would go to
secretarial school, get married,
and produce grandchildren.
♪
(engines rumbling)
VANTOCH:
After World War II,
the airline industry introduced
the DC-6
with a pressurized cabin,
so airplanes could now fly
higher, smoother,
faster,
and also carry more passengers.
TIEMEYER:
The customer who's sitting
in the seats
is going to experience flying
as pretty comfortable.
You have plush seats
Would you like
some dinner, sir?
TIEMEYER:
You're going to be
served cocktails.
How about you, miss?
Oh, this looks delicious.
TIEMEYER:
They were marketing comfort,
which meant you don't need
a nurse.
This is the moment when
this profession becomes
heavily, heavily identified
with women,
and almost exclusively
populated by women.
(paper rustling)
HOOD:
I remember in seventh grade
I read this book,
"How to Become
an Airline Stewardess,"
and the first line was,
"Would you like a boyfriend
in every city in the world?"
(laughing):
And I was like, "Yes, I would."
But I also was like, "I want to
go to every city in the world."
♪
COOKE:
Being a stewardess
was the best possible job
for good girls who were
craving something interesting,
out of the ordinary.
A woman could go to
different places,
and see different things,
and really stand out.
But at the same time,
she was doing something
that was still
very stereotypically feminine.
♪
TIEMEYER:
If you were applying
to be a stewardess,
you were going to be
scrutinized,
first and foremost,
for your looks.
NEWSREEL ANNOUNCER:
To qualify on most airlines,
she must be healthy,
and of normal weight.
HOOD:
You got this chart and you
wouldn't even get an interview
if your height and weight
was more than listed
on that chart.
TIEMEYER:
If you make it physically,
then what they're looking for
is someone who's going
to take orders well.
They need pliant employees.
(applause)
COOKE:
The educational requirements
for stewardesses
really varied very much
by airline.
On Pan Am you had to
have gone to college and you had
to speak two languages fluently.
HOOD:
My dream flight attendant job
was with Pan Am or TWA,
and I was as good as hired
with Pan Am
but I flunked the French test.
With TWA I'd made it through
that grueling interview process,
and when I got
the acceptance letter,
it was beyond exciting.
♪
They flew us to Kansas City
for six weeks.
I arrived in January,
freezing cold, snow up to here,
the happiest girl in the world.
IRELAND:
The training was held in Miami.
And the six weeks involved
learning the procedures
for services.
How do you make coffee
on the airplane?
How do you work the ovens?
How did you mix drinks?
Where did you mix them?
How did you pass them out?
COOKE:
There were segments
on understanding
the physics of flight.
TRAINING INSTRUCTOR:
Should there be a sudden loss
of cabin pressure,
oxygen masks will be released
automatically.
COOKE:
There were segments on safety.
Fasten them tightly,
then I'm going to show you
the ready position.
♪
Part of our safety training
was on mock-up planes.
(screaming)
They had recordings
of people screaming.
They could put smoke
coming through.
They could really make you feel
like you were in a plane crash.
(screaming, shouting)
BRODIGAN:
You have to be able to evacuate
any aircraft within 90 seconds.
(mechanism hissing)
COOKE:
The airline knew that for a
huge number of their passengers,
this would be
their first flight.
They would be in a metal tube
at 35,000 feet,
and any fear that they felt
was very justified,
and so they wanted stewardesses
to be very knowledgeable
and specific in their ability
to reassure a passenger.
Chins up.
 
Stand up straight.
Very good.
That's fine.
COOKE:
When women were first hired
on airplanes,
the sales pitch around them
was that having a mere girl
willing to fly
would help sell tickets.
By the '50s,
the pitch had flipped.
Prices were fixed
by the government,
the airlines had to compete
based on image and perks.
BARRY:
Airlines want to portray
a vision of luxury
and domesticity.
Flight attendants really become
the linchpin to that
as hostesses.
COOKE:
They wanted someone who was
stereotypically very beautiful.
That was a way for an airline
to distinguish itself
and appeal to a
largely masculine customer base.
BARRY:
The airlines really wanted
a visual standardization of what
a lovely stewardess looked like.
♪
IRELAND:
We all got our hair cut just
the length
of our chin bone.
We were all supposed to
look the same;
both our hair
but also our makeup.
Red lipstick, mandatory.
♪
There was an idea, I think,
to make us into
little machine parts
and not think of ourselves
as individuals.
HEENAN:
In our graduation photo,
we look like 20 mannequins
sitting in two rows.
When I looked at it
I couldn't find myself.
(laughing): That was my
my first thing was,
"Where am I in this photograph?"
♪
IRELAND:
The grooming supervisors
were former flight attendants.
Their whole job was to make sure
that your high heels
were three inches tall,
that you had white gloves
that were white,
no runs in your stockings,
your shoes were polished,
not just the right heel height.
MONTAGUE:
They'd look you over
and a gal would do like this
to your buttocks
to see if you had your girdle
on.
♪
DUSTY ROADS:
They had this big piece of paper
with appearance, hair, nails.
You couldn't be too flashy.
♪
BARRY:
You really need to have
a good understanding
of middle class deportment,
speech, manners--
poise,
as the airlines would put it.
IRELAND:
They told us
they wouldn't hesitate
to kick us out of that class
if we didn't do
the right things.
May I offer you a cigarette,
sir?
Oh, no thanks,
I have a fine cigar.
Well, may I put it out
for you, then, sir?
Put it out?
I just lit it!
TRAINING STEWARDESS:
Some of the passengers
get a little
Well, you know how it is with
people who don't smoke cigars.
IRELAND:
And the right things included
always being friendly
to everyone.
You see, you can handle
just about any situation
if you'll just smile,
and really mean it, inside.
BARRY:
It's expected,
it's part of the job
to act like your smile
is genuine,
and everything you're doing
is because you like being
a gracious hostess.
BRODIGAN:
If they didn't care
for something you did, or said,
or reacted to, they would wait
until everyone was in class,
and they'd tap you
on your shoulder,
and they took you to your room,
packed your bags,
and they sent you home.
♪
(airplane engine whirring)
(indistinct talking)
NARRATOR:
The astonishing jet, at last,
comes into its own in 1959.
New York to Paris: seven hours.
Here's America's Boeing 707.
♪
HOOD:
All of a sudden
you could be in Paris.
You didn't take a ship
that took weeks and weeks,
it was hours.
(woman speaking
over P.A. system)
VANTOCH:
Jets were really symbolic
of technological advance.
♪
This was a sign that Americans
were going to be able to
take over the world.
PILOT:
Ladies and gentlemen,
this is your captain speaking.
We are now at cruising altitude,
35,000 feet.
TIEMEYER:
Now you've got a jet
that can travel
two times faster than propeller,
and can accommodate more people.
So this is imperative
for the airline
to start expanding
their customer base,
because they now have
more seats to fill.
They start to cater
not just exclusively
to the business traveler.
They start to go, "Well,
what about bringing your wife?
What about bringing your kid?"
♪
VANTOCH:
This is the moment where flying
is becoming mass transportation.
That's the vision.
PILOT:
This is your captain again.
If you haven't already
changed your watches
to conform to
the time difference,
I suggest you do so now.
♪
TIEMEYER:
The jet age is technological,
but it's also aspirational.
(crowd clamoring)
It's a yearning on the part
of ordinary Americans
to participate in the
glamorous lives of celebrities.
(crowd screaming)
So a factory worker
celebrating retirement
after 30 years on the job,
you could be like Sinatra
and fly down to Peru,
and have a glamorous vacation.
♪
(indistinct chatter)
VANTOCH:
Stewardesses are at the center
of jet age ad campaigns.
This is a new type of woman:
she's sophisticated,
she's very fashionable.
Every airline rolls out
new uniforms.
They call it the "jet age" look.
HOOD:
You see a crew walking in
their powder blue uniforms,
with their pillbox hats
and their high heels,
and it was quite a sight to see.
I mean,
it was the definition of glamor.
GRANT:
"Oh, you're a stewardess?"
You were just on the same level
as a celebrity, movie star.
It opened the doors
to everything--
clubs, parties--
you could crash a wedding
and say you were a stewardess.
(jet engine whirring)
♪
BRODIGAN:
If I wanted to fly
with my friend Lynn,
and she was junior to me,
I could adopt her seniority,
and then we both
could fly together.
Or you could "trip trade."
If you knew you wanted to go
to Paris
with your best friend, you would
trade to be on that trip.
♪
HEENAN:
I went to Paris, I went to Rome,
I went to Athens.
I flew to London
and to Frankfurt a lot.
There was so much to see and do.
You could go to Vidal Sassoon
to get your hair cut
and then you could go out
for a really nice meal.
It really changed me
in terms of my palate.
♪
I used to go to
a favorite restaurant in London
so that I could eat
the tandoori chicken.
(laughs)
IRELAND:
When we landed,
I was in Mexico City,
and could go to dinner.
Wow.
Get back on the airplane
and fly into Central America.
Oh, my gosh.
Pick up the newspaper
from Guatemala
and see what's going on there.
HEENAN:
I became quite independent.
I felt very comfortable moving
around in these foreign cities.
♪
COOKE:
In the '50s and '60s,
women very rarely
traveled alone.
And working on a plane,
especially internationally,
gave you an excuse
to travel completely freely.
You were going to these
foreign countries
and checking into a hotel with
your other fellow stewardesses.
And then no one knew
what you did
until you had to show up
at the airplane next.
IRELAND:
I had grown up in a very narrow,
sheltered environment.
I went out there
and I was confronted
with all the things
that the world had to offer.
HEENAN:
It gave me a lot of
self-confidence
that I could just get on
an airplane and go someplace,
on my own, and be quite happy.
That wasn't true of everybody
that I went to college with
or I went to high school with,
that they could do that
or wanted to do it.
But I wanted to do it,
and I did do it.
COOKE:
This job was asking women
for their ambitions.
It was asking for a woman who
wanted to see uncharted terrain.
A woman whose curiosity
was enormous,
which no other feminized job
in that era really wanted.
It was incredible.
PAT BANKS EDMISTON:
I was kind of looking
for something
a little different in my life.
I was looking at
a fashion magazine.
And the magazine
had an advertisement
for the Grace Downs
Air Career School in Manhattan.
I applied
and I was accepted in 1956.
Never had been on an airplane.
So this was a part of,
you know,
I've never been on an airplane.
This is great. This is great.
VANTOCH:
Women could pay the school
and learn how to become
an airline stewardess.
The expectation,
if you did well at the school,
you would ultimately get hired,
and get a job as a stewardess.
INSTRUCTOR:
Now, this is the main cabin door
where the passengers
for first class will be
EDMISTON:
I was the only student of color
in the school.
INSTRUCTOR:
walking straight,
they'd walk directly
EDMISTON:
There were no Black teachers,
no Black students.
(bell ringing)
I remember we had
a makeup class
and someone made up my face.
(laughs)
I have to laugh now
because I was white.
And when I looked in the mirror,
I'm saying,
"Oh my God, how am I going
to get home like this?"
They had no makeup, of course,
for people of color.
(applause)
When you would graduate,
then airlines would come
to the Grace Downs Air Career
School to interview you,
to put you into positions
in their aircraft.
I was interviewed by
Mohawk Airlines,
by Capital Airlines,
which was one of the largest
southern airlines, and TWA.
Now, everyone was getting
interviewed,
and people were getting hired,
but I was not even getting
a response
from any of the instructors,
or the airlines.
♪
Shortly after the interviews,
one of the chief stewardesses
saw me outside,
and she said to me,
"Pat, I hate to see you
go through this," she said,
"but the airlines
do not hire Negroes."
♪
The South, it was open, clear
that white people had
this advantage,
Black people had no advantage.
I'm in New York.
It's not as clear or vivid.
Subtle, yes, you just
didn't know certain things.
And then when the airline
situation occurred,
it just opened my eyes totally.
Yes, it exists here.
♪
KEISHA BLAIN:
Traveling by air
was very expensive
and not easily accessible,
to most Americans in general,
let alone African Americans.
♪
It's not surprising that
Pat Banks didn't have
a full understanding
of what was taking place.
BAY:
A lot of airports
in the 1950s
were either segregated
or beginning to be segregated.
Airlines sometimes used
a special code.
If people called
from a Black neighborhood,
or if they sounded Black,
then this special code
would be written down
on their ticket to indicate
that they had to be seated apart
from others.
BLAIN:
In some instances,
African Americans would be
bumped off of flights to make
space for white passengers.
(indistinct chatter)
EDMISTON:
I went home,
and we had a neighbor,
and I called him as soon
as I got home and I said,
"Pop, they're telling me
that they don't hire Negroes."
He said,
"We'll take care of this."
He introduced me
to Adam Clayton Powell.
Adam Clayton Powell referred me
and introduced me
to the New York State Commission
Against Discrimination.
BLAIN:
There were no federal laws
in place to protect against
discrimination in the workplace.
So it was very important for Pat
to file her case in New York
because New York
was the first state
in the United States to pass
an anti-discrimination law.
EDMISTON:
I filed a case against Mohawk,
Capital, and TWA.
The statute of limitations
had expired with Mohawk and TWA,
but it held strong with Capital.
Discrimination is a
very difficult thing to prove.
BARRY:
Airlines don't specify
that they're not going to hire
Black women,
but they don't really need to,
because manuals
will say things like,
"Oh, are your hands
soft and white?"
BAY:
They talk about how people
shouldn't have
broad or flat noses.
People shouldn't have
hook noses.
Coarse hair, overly full lips--
indicating certain kind of
racial stereotypes
about Jews and Blacks.
They actually include enough
details to make sure
that certain kinds of people
really cannot get employed.
♪
MONTAGUE:
When I was hired,
you couldn't be married, period.
We had a couple of gals
that did it on the side
(laughs)
but you couldn't be married
then, couldn't have children.
BARRY:
From the very beginning,
most airlines
have an explicit ban
on hiring married women.
Starting in 1953,
American Airlines impose
a new rule
that stewardesses will
leave the job when they turn 32.
(applause)
ELAINE ROCK:
It took a little while,
but other airlines
started adding the age rule too.
(applause)
♪
They wanted us to be hired,
do our job for a couple
of years and leave.
COOKE:
Airlines wanted women
who projected a degree
of wholesomeness,
but also a little bit
of sexual availability.
They wanted her to be young,
so that she would appear
to be single
without having to say so.
BRODIGAN:
United had
flights out of
New York to Chicago
called executive flights.
Only men could buy a ticket
on those planes.
HEENAN:
When I went for
my interview with TWA,
I signed a paper,
which they presented to me,
and on it, it said
that I would be retired
at the age of 35.
35 was a long ways away.
I thought I would be
married with children.
That was the expectation--
you would meet Mr. Wonderful
in first class,
and you'd be swept
off your feet, etcetera,
and, and that would be
happiness ever after.
TIEMEYER:
The requirement to be unmarried,
the requirement to stay under a
certain age, it's really about
making sure
that flight attendants
are not getting paid top dollar,
that they're
not gonna get a pension,
that they're not gonna
accrue vacation benefits
that they would've gotten
if they're in year 15 or year 20
of their career.
ROADS:
It was money, money, money.
What do you think it costs
to have an ace stewardess
at age 32, top salary,
maximum vacation,
gonna fly until she's 60,
get a retirement?
If you're not married and having
babies and happy to stay there,
tough luck, honey.
I didn't want to stop flying.
Flying was exciting.
God, it, it was that.
It still is, but then
it was really exciting.
(bus engine rumbling)
♪
BARRY:
Flight attendants
start to organize
in the late 1940s.
They're unhappy
with their wages,
but they're also unhappy
with being patronized
by the airlines.
COBBLE:
Pretty quickly,
they begin to realize
that they would have
greater bargaining leverage
if they joined
with some of the other workers.
The pilots set up a division
for stewards and stewardesses.
And some of the flight
attendants went into
the Transport Workers Union.
BRODIGAN:
Unions just weren't
something I thought of.
When I was in training,
I failed the section
on the contract.
I didn't understand it.
And I didn't understand it
until I started flying,
and I realized how the company
took advantage of stewardesses.
INMAN:
Being from Pittsburgh,
I was quite familiar
with unions.
And so, there would be a union
meeting, and I would go to it.
♪
BRODIGAN:
The grievance procedure
was an orderly settlement
of a dispute.
I thought,
"Hmm, this is interesting.
I kind of like that."
COBBLE:
Flight attendants, pilots,
and baggage handlers
wanted to be paid fairly.
They wanted more control over
their hours, their flight time.
But flight attendants
also had problems
that the men didn't face.
When American Airlines said,
we're gonna put it
in the contract
that flight attendants
can't work past the age of 32,
the union pushed back.
The rule still went in.
But what they did win
was a compromise,
what they called
a "grandmother clause,"
so that any flight attendant
who had been hired before 1953
could continue on.
It saved a lot of jobs.
ROCK:
Dusty wasn't required to retire
when the age rule came in.
She had nothing to lose.
She said, "I want to fight this.
This is wrong."
And that was her motivation
to join the union.
ROADS:
My family was very Republican.
(chuckles)
And unions were naughty,
naughty, naughty, terrible.
Nobody in my family
had ever belonged to a union.
That was just, "Oh my goodness,
we're college people,
we don't join unions. Oh!"
ROCK:
She became vice chair and
would file grievances on behalf
of other stewardesses.
Dusty exuded
this sense of confidence.
She always spoke to anybody
who would speak to her,
and many men always did.
Because she was so attractive,
they wanted to know,
"Who is this woman?"
♪
ROADS:
I figured out that the Congress
was in session on Tuesday,
Wednesday, and Thursday,
and then they
went home on Friday.
So, I bid
the Washington trip on Monday.
And I'd always have a
bunch of congressmen on board,
And they got to know me.
"Dusty, how you doing?"
I said, "Oh, I'm really
upset about this.
"My best friend's being fired
because she's 32."
They said,
"What? They fire you?"
Here these guys are 60.
BARRY:
Dusty, as she's flying,
she's working her connections.
She's leveraging the visibility
of stewardesses
to gain access, essentially,
to people who can
pull levers of power
in policy-making circles.
♪
ROCK:
In 1963,
Dusty decided to put on
a press conference.
(indistinct chattering)
ROADS:
To say the word "stewardess"
in those days was glamour.
Oh boy, oh boy.
ROCK:
She got four stewardesses
that were under 32,
and four stewardesses
that were over 32.
ROADS:
I said, "Now,
they're firing us at age 32.
Can you tell me
which ones are 32?"
And of course they said,
"No, no, no, no."
But I did look pretty good.
♪
BARRY:
The idea is, basically,
"Hey, take a look at us.
"Don't we all look like
lovely stewardesses?"
It's a kind of dare
to the airlines' policy.
Can you really tell
who's past the age limit?
♪
We hit every newspaper
in the country.
♪
♪
COOKE:
These women were really
trying to use the sexism
that was being wielded against
them to get what they wanted,
which was to keep their jobs.
♪
ROCK:
When the stewardesses
went into negotiation
with the union and management,
American Airlines
came into the room
with a stack of newspapers
from all over the country
and just plopped it down
on the desk, saying,
"That was an interesting stunt
that you girls pulled.
We're not going to negotiate
the age rule now."
It's terrible
to be fired because of age.
But I had hopes
because I knew how smart
Dusty was.
ROADS:
I believed in fair play.
Every club I ever was in,
I became president.
I was president
of the Women's Athletic Council
and president of my sorority.
I knew all the rules,
and I went by them.
And if I didn't like a rule,
we changed it.
ROCK:
Dusty wasn't just fighting
airline management
and an age rule;
she was fighting
national gender discrimination.
♪
EDMISTON:
Once things began
to hit the newspapers,
I would get letters.
When I had threatening letters,
I had to report it
to the police.
You kind of expect these things.
You knew you were gonna
get focused on.
 
You knew that you were gonna get
letters of negativity.
I mean, this is something,
"Oh, here it comes."
(sighs)
Um
I just couldn't deal
with the racism anymore.
I couldn't deal with it.
I didn't think it was fair.
Um
I'm just as equal to you
as you are to me.
We're one.
We're humans.
And you're not gonna
treat us this way anymore.
VANTOCH:
Pat's plans were put on hold
while her lawyers
researched her case.
They had to look
at the supervisor notes
and see who met what criteria,
how did Pat compare
to the other applicants.
They were trying
to prove that she was
the typical all-American girl.
She played violin,
she was respectable.
So, the element that excluded
her from that image of
femininity and Americanness
was her race.
I was determined
that somebody of
African American heritage
was gonna get this job.
(bus engine rumbling)
VANTOCH:
Finally,
in late February 1960,
Pat got her ruling.
♪
EDMISTON:
I was working for Con Edison,
going to college at night.
And there was
a little candy store
on the corner where
I used to get the bus
to go home.
When I got into the candy store,
the man in the store said,
"Pat, Pat, you won the case!"
♪
I couldn't wait to get home.
My mother says,
"Patsy, the phone
is ringing off the hook.
You won! You won! You won!"
Oh, my God.
♪
The court ordered
Capital Airlines to hire me,
or it would go
to the Supreme Court.
The president of
Capital Airlines called me.
I don't remember his name,
but he called to apologize
and welcome me into training
in Alexandria, Virginia.
(laughs)
♪
You know, it was like,
just, we did it.
They can't get away
with this anymore.
I'm young now.
I like to hang out
with friends and do things.
But I had to be
this perfect human being.
And the only way I could do that
was to do my job,
go home, come back.
I wouldn't do anything
that may have led to a mistake.
(engine rumbling)
I remember we were on a DC-3,
and DC-3s are kind of bumpy.
This man looked at me,
and he said,
"When you finish
doing your work,
would you please hold my hand?"
And I said, "Sure, sir,
I'll sit down with you."
So he held my hand,
and he asked me, he said,
"Have you ever been to Montana?"
I said, "No, sir."
He said, "The grass
is so beautifully green,
the trees are so green."
He said, "No niggers
and no winos."
(gasps)
I'm holding his hand.
Now, the word "nigger"
is something
you never touch me with,
but by the power of God,
I was able to sit there and hold
his hand and not respond.
I mean, I didn't respond
until I got home that night.
But these are the kind of
situations that occurred
that you had to really, really
keep it together.
I worked for a year.
I wanted to go on
with my life,
finish school.
I was planning on getting
married,
so I decided to leave.
I felt it was accomplished.
The barrier was broken.
♪
GRANT:
Any questions that
any company may have had
as to whether a Negro
was capable of doing the job,
Pat set the record straight.
We could go above and beyond
doing this job.
♪
BLAIN:
The floodgates do not open.
It really, at that time,
is about
saving face.
It's about letting a few in
to avoid more lawsuits.
♪
Pat is very much part
of a group of activists
at the grassroots level
who are pushing for changes,
certainly at the local level,
but even more significantly,
at the federal level.
♪
(indistinct talking)
BAY:
Pat's victory with the airlines
takes place just as
the civil rights movement
is really heating up.
Change is in the air.
(protestors singing
and clapping)
CROWD:
Freedom, freedom ♪
(horn honking)
NEWS ANCHOR:
Congress passes the
most sweeping civil rights bill
ever to be written into the Law,
and thus reaffirms
the conception of equality
for all men that began
with Lincoln and the Civil War
100 years ago.
The Negro won his freedom then;
he wins his dignity now.
Five hours after the House
passes the measure,
the Civil Rights Act of 1964
is signed at the White House
by President Johnson.
(indistinct conversation)
TIEMEYER:
The Civil Rights Act
was designed to address
the race-based inequalities
that have been a part
of the United States
since before
the United States was founded.
Less known about
the Civil Rights Act
is that the worker protections
to prevent discrimination
also covered sex.
♪
FUENTES:
Just before it was passed,
Howard Smith,
a congressman from Virginia,
introduced an amendment
to include prohibition
on gender discrimination.
It was then called
"sex discrimination."
♪
This stunned everybody there,
because this was a law that was
supposed to help Black people.
What is your opinion,
Mr. Chairman,
of the current
civil rights bill?
Now, we've had trouble with
the so-called
"civil rights" thing
for a good many years.
His motivations were not clear.
BARRY:
One interpretation
is that he did that
to add this laughable idea
of sex discrimination
that would help tank the bill.
The other interpretation
is that he wanted to ensure,
if this bill was gonna provide
all these protections
for Black Americans,
that white women
should get protection, as well.
If that's the ugliness
of the sausage making,
I mean the sausage
isn't that bad, right?
Because for the first time
in the United States,
we now have
employment protections
that are designed, really,
to promote women
entering professions
that were otherwise
reserved for men.
INMAN:
Our eyes were like, oh,
that is gender.
That includes gender.
Women have rights now.
IRELAND:
The passage of the Civil Rights
Act was a major step forward.
But the passing
of a law is not enough.
It's nowhere near enough.
You comply with the law
because you think
it's a good for the-- you know,
it's a good way to live.
You stop at a red light
so people don't crash into
each other, good.
But if you pass a law
that people don't want to obey,
they won't.
TIEMEYER:
The Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission was set up
to be the enforcement mechanism
to make sure that
discrimination in employment
was not happening.
RECEPTIONIST:
Good morning,
this is the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission.
May I help you?
TIEMEYER:
The expectation
at the EEOC,
when they opened their doors,
was that they were gonna hear
from a bunch
of African Americans
who had documented cases where
their rights as a worker
had been ignored.
MONTAGUE:
I was gonna be fired at age 32.
(airplane engine humming)
Dusty and I went
to the EEOC
so I could file a complaint.
Dusty had heard
they were opening that day,
so we planned our flight
to be there.
And there were people putting
typewriters here and,
you know, chairs there,
and getting it all
straightened out.
They had just opened the doors.
They weren't really
ready at all.
♪
ROADS:
We were there the first day.
This Black woman
looked at me, she said,
"You're free, white, and 21,
"what are you here for?
You have everything going
for you."
So we said, "Sit down, honey.
I got a story to tell you."
And we told them, and they went,
"Ooh. Ooh."
(typewriter keys clacking)
They couldn't believe it.
(phone ringing)
♪
FUENTES:
I joined the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission
October 4, 1965,
three months
after the agency opened.
I was the first woman attorney
in the office
of the general counsel,
which dealt with answering
the big legal questions
that came up
administering the law.
(phone ringing)
We had tons of complaints
filed by the stewardesses.
(keys clacking)
TIEMEYER:
They had no idea
what was coming,
this volcanic kind of expression
of a yearning for justice
of women keeping it
bottled up for so long.
(keys clacking, phones ringing)
IRELAND:
They challenged
restrictions on age,
the ability to get married,
that you couldn't be pregnant
and be a flight attendant.
They filed complaint
after complaint after complaint.
Within a year, flight attendants
had more than 100 cases on file.
COOKE:
These were not women
who were setting out
to break barriers for women.
They just wanted
to keep their jobs.
But the EEOC was not taking
these complaints
based on gender very seriously.
FUENTES:
There were commissioners
who were favorable
to women's rights.
But the executive director
was opposed to women's rights,
the vice chair was opposed.
And on the staff level, I was
the only woman speaking out.
From an early age,
I was sensitized
to the second-class treatment
of Blacks in this country.
But I was blind
to the second-class treatment
of women in this country.
I had never done anything
or given any thought
to women's rights,
but I read the statute.
The law said you have to handle
cases of sex discrimination.
You don't have a choice,
when a law says something
has to be investigated,
to say, "I don't feel like
doing that part of the law."
(TV show theme song playing)
This book has sold
more than 50,000 copies
in the hardcover edition,
and 700,000 have been
published in paperback.
♪
J. FRANK WILLIS:
Betty Friedan,
a trained psychologist turned
housewife, mother, and author
BETTY FRIEDAN:
"The Feminine Mystique"
is the name
that I have given
to the image of woman
that we have been
living by in America,
and, in fact,
in most of the Western world
for the last, uh,
15 or 20 years.
IRELAND:
"The Feminine Mystique"
put words
around the disquiet
that a lot of women
of a certain class
were experiencing.
It called to people's attention
the reality that women
who were smart and educated
and could do so much
were confined to one role
once they were married
and had children,
and that was mom and wife.
WOMAN:
Miss Friedan, do you
think maybe society is,
right now, in an age
of evolution
Yes.
and of change?
Oh, yes, and I think
no one's going to
hand women anything.
I think women must begin
to say "yes" to themselves,
and become who they could be,
and ask, for society, the real
solutions that women still need.
FUENTES:
Betty Friedan came
to the EEOC
because she thought she was
going to write a follow-up book
to "The Feminine Mystique"
about all the progress
she thought women had made.
And she saw me there, a woman,
so she came over to me,
and she said,
"What's really going on here?
What's happening?"
I was feeling pretty down.
I had had a discussion
with the executive director
who was opposed
to women's rights.
I asked her to come into my
office, and I leveled with her.
I said, "What this country needs
is an organization
to fight for women
like the NAACP
fights for its members."
♪
IRELAND:
Halloween weekend, 1966,
19 women and two men
met in the basement
of the "Washington Post"
to form NOW, the
National Organization for Women,
which had been conceived
in the summer.
FUENTES:
All of us wanted women
to be accepted in educational
institutions on an equal basis.
And we wanted women to be
treated equally on the job.
♪
IRELAND:
Sonia started
feeding information
to two of the other NOW founders
about what the EEOC was not
doing about women's equality.
FUENTES:
Then we would draft a letter,
from NOW to the EEOC,
complaining
about the EEOC's action
in various sectors.
♪
I knew that wasn't
proper procedure,
but, um,
I was so emotionally involved
that I, that I did it.
To my amazement,
nobody ever raised the question
of how come these people know
what the commission is doing
at its innermost meetings?
(protestors shouting)
IRELAND:
NOW took many directions
to try to pressure the EEOC
to enforce the law.
(chanting)
They used demonstrations.
WOMAN:
We have a lawyer contacting
IRELAND:
They filed lawsuits.
They went into the legislature
to say, "Hey, they aren't
enforcing your law."
(chanting)
CATHERINE MACKIN:
Ida Phillips is
a waitress in Florida.
She was refused a job
at a defense plant
because she had
a preschool-aged child.
The company felt the child,
not yet in school,
would keep Mrs. Phillips
home from work too often.
She took her case to court,
and the Supreme Court
has agreed to review it.
The Supreme Court is involved
because of
the 1964 Civil Rights Law.
DOROTHY SUE COBBLE:
One of the things
the EEOC did was to signal
how the courts were gonna
think about things.
Of particular concern
for the airlines,
was whether they were gonna
have to change rules
about marriage and age.
♪
TIEMEYER:
In Title VII
of the Civil Rights Act,
there is mention of
a "Bona Fide
Occupational Qualification."
FUENTES:
That was a provision
in the statute.
MAN:
Hut!
FUENTES:
And what it meant was,
for some jobs,
you don't have to hire
men and women equally.
(crowd cheering)
MAN: Play ball!
FUENTES:
For example, if you were hiring
somebody as a wet nurse,
you don't have to interview
men for that job.
(baby fussing)
COBBLE:
The airlines thought
it was absolutely necessary
for their business
that they have only women, and,
because they only had women,
they really
weren't discriminating.
(chatting indistinctly)
TIEMEYER:
Airlines were very confident
that the public liked having
stewardesses on planes.
They actually did surveys
that showed that
80% of the flying public
preferred stewardesses
over stewards.
♪
COBBLE:
They pushed the EEOC
to have hearings
so they could clarify
the situation.
BARRY:
They put on this whole
elaborate defense.
"Men can carry trays,
but they can't be charming.
"They can't create
"the liveliness and the,
the atmosphere that,
that young women can create."
"And we argue that
a man cannot do this
"in the same capacity
whatsoever that a woman can.
And, therefore, being a woman
is essential for the job."
BARRY:
The Employment Opportunities
Commission issues its opinion
and it says being female
is absolutely not
a qualification for this job.
FUENTES:
Then they had to issue
the second decision,
which was,
is it a violation of Title VII
for airlines to terminate
or ground stewardesses
at the age of 32 or 35
or when they got married?
I drafted the decision
of the commission
finding that it was unlawful.
TIEMEYER:
One option for the airlines
is to just give up
and to change their
hiring and firing policies.
But if something is so dear
to you, then you're gonna fight.
BRODIGAN:
I was a doctor's assistant
in Washington, D.C.
I did all the bookkeeping,
I did all the secretarial work.
I met Richard Lansdale.
He was an attorney,
and I fell in love.
That was-- I just fell in love
with him.
 
He said, "Why don't you get out
of what you're doing now
and become a stewardess?"
I was working
60 hours a week
and getting paid for 40
and no vacation, no sick leave.
So I had no benefits at all.
So, it seemed like
a good thing to do.
♪
I went to United,
and they hired me.
When I was hired, stewardesses
could not be married.
I thought it was wrong.
Just, why can't you be married?
Pilots can be married.
Why is it okay for a pilot to
be married and not a stewardess?
What I don't understand,
what's the difference?
I was secretly married
for four years.
♪
We had observation reports
called "check rides,"
and you were evaluated
on everything.
♪
I remember
there was a supervisor
who gave me
a performance evaluation.
She said one of my problems
was that I just was tenacious.
They wanted someone
who complied.
You did what
you were told to do,
and you didn't challenge them.
Um, I found it hard
not to challenge them.
When they started giving me
extra check rides, I thought,
"They have to know I'm married,
and they're trying
to get rid of me."
(birds chirping, dog barking)
I was off of work
for nine months.
I really never wanted
to be a housewife.
I wanted to get back in the air.
And then one day I said,
"To hell with this."
And I went
to the "Miami Herald."
And I said,
"Do you want a funny story?"
♪
DAVID BRINKLEY:
This stewardess
married secretly.
Then, when she admitted
she was married,
the airline fired her.
She, the stewardess, said today,
"They certainly have
a funny set of morals."
BRODIGAN:
When it hit the news,
there was a group
of stewardesses
in Miami, and they all
wore wedding bands to work.
They kind of
ganged up on the company.
It hit the fan in the
executive offices in Chicago.
Fortunately, I had free legal
services from my husband,
and I filed a lawsuit.
BARRY:
Flight attendants are contesting
age and marriage rules
on a variety of airlines.
COOKE:
For the first couple of years,
the judges who were hearing
these sex discrimination cases
really sided with the airlines,
almost unilaterally.
TIEMEYER:
Then there's
a crucial court decision
where the judges determine
the essential work that
an airline does
is safely transport people
from point A to point B.
If that's the essential work
of an airline,
then the essential work
of a flight attendant
is about safety.
It doesn't matter
if you're a woman.
It doesn't matter
if you're under age 32.
It doesn't matter
if you're married.
BARRY:
We start to see a kind of
consensus among courts,
and they start to rule
for flight attendants.
BRODIGAN:
As it turned out,
they had to give me
all of my back pay,
and they had to pay
my lawyer's fees.
COBBLE:
Flight attendants
had achieved a lot
in terms of gaining
certain workplace rights.
But there was a lot
more to be done.
GRANT:
In the earlier days,
aircrafts were smaller,
so therefore it was very
important
to have a weight limit.
You have to filter in fuel,
baggage,
the weight of the passengers
and you also had to add
in the stewardess's weight.
WOMAN:
Remember to bend your knees.
FILM NARRATOR:
The girls who fly
come in various sizes.
The assortment is greater
than most people think.
They can be as tall as 5'9".
One airline takes girls
as short as 4'5".
BRODIGAN:
They had a card,
your appearance card.
They weighed you in every month
and put your weight down.
HOOD:
You would just get off a plane,
a supervisor is waiting for you
with a clipboard.
There's a scale at the bottom
of the stairs,
and if you were even one pound
over your hiring weight,
you were put on probation
and you had three chances
to lose that weight.
GRANT:
I took water pills.
I took diet pills.
I starved.
Those were some of the tricks
that all of us did,
all of us did.
We just passed the tricks
around and said,
"Here, take this laxative,
you'll lose three pounds."
"Oh, here,
take this Dexedrine Spansule.
You won't be hungry all day."
Just for one pound, you could
be taken off of payroll.
TIEMEYER:
No one else at the airline
except women
were being held
to this standard.
If you're thinking of it in
terms
of a system of bodily control,
this is pretty extreme.
(signal chimes)
BARRY:
Airline executives had
approached flight attendants
for so long in such a
patronizing way.
Even though so much had changed
around them,
airline executives don't seem to
want to evolve with the times.
(commercial music playing)
COMMERCIAL NARRATOR:
When a Braniff International
hostess meets you
on the airplane
she'll be dressed like this.
VANTOCH:
Airlines had this stodgy,
old-fashioned image
that was dependable, reliable,
but not hip or cool.
COMMERCIAL NARRATOR:
When she brings you your dinner,
she'll be dressed this way.
VANTOCH:
Braniff hired Emilio Pucci to
design stewardess uniforms.
NARRATOR:
The "Air Strip" is brought to
you by Braniff International,
who believes that even an
airline hostess
should look like a girl.
(commercial music continues)
VANTOCH:
This ad was not just appealing
to male business travelers.
It's appealing to women
who want to be young
and fashionable.
This was really
the beginning of an entirely
new version of the stewardess.
♪
TIEMEYER:
Airlines start to go,
"How high can we go
with these skirt lines?"
Remember what it was like before
Southwest Airlines?
You didn't have hostesses
in hot pants.
Remember?
♪
COOKE:
Prices were still fixed,
so airlines wanted
to get market share in any way
that they could.
♪
HEENAN:
There was one uniform
that was a problem
because if you bent over,
cleavage would show.
We're going around (laughs)
keeping our hand on
on our chest.
VANTOCH:
TWA introduced
foreign-accent flights.
They had four different designs
for the uniforms,
and they were all paper.
HEENAN:
The paper dresses were either
an olde English wench,
a French cocktail,
an Italian toga,
or the Manhattan penthouse.
I was an olde English wench.
Maybe they maybe they
wanted us to speak like Chaucer
or something, I don't know.
You had to kind of be careful,
first of all,
trying to get it on,
that you didn't rip,
which did happen sometimes.
And you had to take off your
other clothes
in a tiny bathroom.
And then parade around in them.
It was ridiculous.
I'm Diane.
I've got 747s to Miami. Fly me.
I'm Terry, I've got great
connections in Miami,
all over the
sunshine states of America.
Fly me.
I'm Marisa.
I've got nonstop flights
to Miami every day.
Fly me.
"Fly Me."
Fly me how?
What are you going to do,
get on top of me?
You can fly me morning,
afternoon, or night.
Just say when.
I'm Judy, and I was born to fly.
Fly me.
ANNOUNCER: Fly Judy.
HEENAN:
It was pretty close
to "(muted) me."
And I, I hated that.
It was really an insult.
COBBLE:
It wasn't just that the ads
were demeaning in some
abstract way.
It concretely affected
the women's day-to-day lives.
It made their job much harder.
We knew when people passed by
us and felt our butts,
or they accidentally pretended
they were reaching for something
to feel our breasts,
or trapped us, you know,
tried to squeeze past something
so they could feel your body.
The pilots had a little habit,
in particular,
one of them I remember, when I
was going to my room
at the layover, and he ran his
hand down my back and he said,
"Oh, I see
you're a modern woman.
You don't wear a bra."
COOKE: Some women were busy
enjoying their new freedoms.
Freedoms which they felt
very happy about,
to exist as sexual beings
in a world that was now willing
to acknowledge them as such.
But those campaigns in
particular really did cause
a much wider swath of the women
who were working
as stewardesses to stand up
and say, "Hang on.
That's one step too far."
(helicopter whirring)
(explosions)
(munitions firing)
TIEMEYER:
Just as stewardesses
are becoming more sexualized,
the world is becoming more
complicated.
This is the darkest hour
in America's Cold War fight.
(engine roaring)
We'd like to welcome you aboard
Flying Tiger line
flight number F2B3
to Bien Hoa, Vietnam.
TIEMEYER:
By 1968, there are
500,000 troops on the ground
in Vietnam at any given moment.
To maintain those numbers,
the U.S. military can't do
it alone.
So they contract
with private airlines.
The arrangement is that
they're leasing the jet,
fully staffed.
BRODIGAN:
Flying in, it was very somber.
The soldiers knew where
they were going.
INMAN:
We usually landed
in the middle of the night,
and got in and out of Vietnam
as quickly as possible--
men off, men on.
They were shooting rockets,
and that would've been
a good score
if they could pull down a 747.
BRODIGAN:
When we landed,
if you heard gunshots
you had to evacuate
the aircraft quickly.
You ran to the bunkers.
ANNOUNCER (over loudspeaker):
May I have your attention
in the terminal area.
BRODIGAN:
Every time we left, going home,
there's this absolute huge roar.
(roaring cheers)
BRODIGAN:
Some of the soldiers
got hooked on drugs.
I remember one flight,
someone had not been weaned off
of whatever they were on,
and he was just shaking
all the way back.
I just put my arms around him
and held him,
until we got to
where we were going
and they got medical transport
for him.
TIEMEYER:
The flight attendant profession
has always struggled
with the differences between
the intensity and seriousness of
the work that must be done,
especially as safety
professionals,
and then you've got
this public role of being
desirable, of being serene,
of being charming.
The late '60s, early '70s
is this very precarious
and completely confused moment.
(audience laughter)
Stewardess!
I think my window's open!
(audience laughter)
"It's not my aisle."
(audience laughter)
They are so dumb.
Beautiful, but dumb.
TIEMEYER:
You're being marketed,
basically, as a Barbie doll,
and yet doing more
and more complex work.
There's a fundamental
incompatibility
between these two things.
(sirens blaring)
REPORTER:
The scene was an all too
familiar one
at LaGuardia Airport today,
as an early afternoon bomb
threat
forced the evacuation of
the airport.
IRELAND:
In the late '60s, there
were a lot of bomb threats.
And once you get a bomb threat
for an airplane,
you evacuate it,
and you don't get back on
until they've cleared it.
So we had a bomb threat,
and we'd evacuated the airplane.
The pilot comes out of the
cockpit and says to me,
"While we're here,
would you mind cooking me a
steak and make it medium rare?"
Without even thinking,
I went to the galley,
I turned on the oven.
And then all of a sudden
it struck me.
There I was in the galley
of an aircraft
that might explode
at any minute,
cooking this guy a steak.
I had one of those clicks
where, "Wait a minute,
why would I be doing this?"
I walked off the airplane
and I said, "You can cook your
steak yourself.
I'm not staying there."
That moment was
a turning point for me.
(beeping)
The men don't have to wear hats
with their uniform, why do we?
The men don't have to wear
girdles, why do we?
The men got single rooms,
the women did not.
Once you open your eyes,
you can never wholly close
them again.
♪
INMAN:
When I was 30 years old,
I was the master executive
chairman
with the union,
which entitled me to sign
a non-discriminatory contract
with Northwest Airlines.
It included a provision for
stewardesses to become pursers.
The purser handled
all of the paperwork
on international flights.
They did not have weight check.
They were able
to wear eyeglasses.
And they always
had single rooms.
There was no reason why
a female could not be a purser.
MAN:
Remove your jacket
from its package
and place the jacket
over your head.
TIEMEYER:
If you were a woman that wanted
to make a career out of flying,
your natural inclination
would be to move
to the purser position
because of the better pay.
But certain airlines,
like Northwest,
refused to hire women
for the purser position.
INMAN:
In 1967,
Northwest hired five men off
the street to be pursers.
I called the director of Labor
Relations and I said,
"The contract requires you
to post
these purser job positions
to everyone,"
which he did.
The men made the stewardesses
feel
that they were not entitled
to the job,
and they could not
handle the job of purser.
I realized as master executive
chairman
that someone had to do it.
So I applied for the job.
I became the first and only
female purser
with Northwest Airlines.
When I became a purser,
I actually took a pay cut.
The male pursers were getting
$250 more per month.
It was not fair at all.
Why should I be treated
differently than the men?
My whole thought was,
I am right and they are wrong.
And as long as I am right,
I will pursue this.
Michael Gottesman
was an expert in labor law.
I made an appointment
to see him.
Our expertise was labor law
and employment law.
We were the logical people
to call.
INMAN:
I laid out the whole picture
of the discrimination
and how we had no recourse.
GOTTESMAN:
In the course of describing
her efforts to get
the purser job,
she just said offhandedly,
"You know, it's particularly
ridiculous
"because it's really
the same job.
"If a man holds it,
they call it a purser.
If a woman holds it,
they call it a stewardess."
It would have been a good case,
even if it was just the way
they had treated Mary Pat,
but it was a much bigger case.
If they were paying
a hundred men
a higher amount
for doing the same work,
then every female flight
attendant
would be entitled
to the higher pay.
INMAN:
We filed a class action lawsuit
on July 15, 1970.
We originally had 40 people
to file the suit.
That guaranteed us
a class action.
GOTTESMAN:
You have to convince the judge
that this would be an
appropriate class action,
that all of the people have
the same grievance.
And Mary Pat led the effort.
She was fantastic at organizing.
INMAN:
We had to educate people
that we were on the right side
of the law,
and we're only trying
to force the company
to obey the law.
♪
FILM NARRATOR:
Eastern presents "The Losers."
MAN IN FILM:
She's awkward.
Uh, not very friendly.
Aw, but she's too young.
Oh, she's
oh, she bites nails.
She wears glasses--
honey, no, the other
Oh, now
TIEMEYER:
"Meet the Losers"
relishes the fact
that they're turning away
perfectly attractive,
perfectly articulate people.
MAN IN FILM:
Well, uh
TIEMEYER:
And they're all white.
And that is not an accident.
FILM NARRATOR:
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.
TIEMEYER:
Eastern Airlines is stressing
we're still an exclusive form
of transportation,
and the promise of exclusivity
is also a promise
of racial exclusivity.
GRANT:
The first Black flight attendant
for Delta was hired in '66.
And then I was hired in 1971.
So we're saying
nearly a decade
after Pat won her case.
Pat opened the doors,
but the doors weren't kicked
open,
they were cracked.
MIA BAY:
By the start of the 1970s,
there's only about
a thousand Black women
working across
all of the airlines,
but that's only three percent
of the total number
of flight attendants
in the country at that point.
Affirmative action was designed
to make sure that
candidates of color,
if they're qualified,
they get hired.
It replaces nepotism,
where employers
hire people that they're most
comfortable with,
which is
usually people like themselves.
BLAIN:
Airlines are forced
to hire Black people.
It doesn't mean they want to.
UNDRA MAYS:
I was hired in 1970.
Once I completed the training
and I started the job,
I realized that the company,
National Airlines,
did not want me.
When I would see certain
captains,
I knew scheduling was going to
pull me off the flight
because they'd refuse
to fly with me.
♪
When we traveled,
you had to share a room.
We would pull up to the hotel.
The other three flight
attendants,
they've already discussed it
among themselves.
One would run out
into the hotel,
and sign up for the rooms.
By the time I'm getting into
the hotel,
they, they already have the key
and they're gone.
They would open the door,
but then tell me that
I have to go downstairs
and get my own room.
I remember the front desk,
not being able
to convince them
to open the door,
not having any rooms available.
And on many occasions,
I would kind of settle
in a corner.
You know, I'm still in uniform.
And I would sleep in the lobby.
(indistinct talking)
There was absolutely no one that
I could discuss
a problem with.
The union, uh,
did not want me as well.
If I had a problem
with my own supervisor,
who was I going to go to?
I ended up calling the Southern
Poverty Law Center
and I told them, I explained to
them, and they, of course,
they asked me for proof or
paperwork or whatever,
and I said, "They won't give
it to me."
And they said, "Well, we,
we'll make a few phone calls."
I have no idea what was said.
I have no idea if they
in fact made those calls.
But all of sudden things
started to change.
My supervisor called me in,
and said,
"The director's asking,
you know, to submit names
for the Fly Me ad."
And I thought about it.
MAN: Prepare for takeoff at
this time. Thank you.
MAYS:
Okay.
You don't want me here?
Watch this.
♪
You don't like me
in the workforce?
Then how are you going
to like me
with my picture pasted all
over?
The sexual nature of the
campaign ad, "Fly Me,"
really didn't bother me.
I did the ad because
I, I wanted to show them.
♪
GRANT:
When you looked at all
the different advertisements,
you never saw a Black face.
You never were chosen
to do any advertisement.
So, the sexism was secondary.
I'm not sitting here in a
sexy position to advertise sex.
You were representing
the Black stewardess,
and all that we could accomplish
and that we were capable of
doing.
♪
We understand the burden of the
doors that we possibly
could be opening up for anyone
else to follow us.
Take your hands so that you've
got them up out of the water.
Push the water away
MAYS:
A couple of times a year,
we used to go to recurrent
training.
And this person stopped
and said,
"There is a huge billboard
"with your, with your ad,
the Fly Me ad,
"and when I saw you, I thought,
I didn't know they had
Black stewardesses,"
and she went and applied.
(horns honking,
whistling blaring)
WOMAN:
Women's Rights Day, come
join us in the march tomorrow!
FILM NARRATOR:
For more than four years,
members of the National
Organization for Women
have been campaigning throughout
the nation
for more equality and
better civil rights,
and today their movement is
wider and stronger than ever.
(marchers chanting)
GLORIA STEINEM:
This inhuman system
of exploitation will change,
but only if we force it to
change, and force it together.
(cheers and applause)
I've never been captive.
No, I don't feel, you know,
enslaved, or anything like that.
We love you, men,
and you can be the boss.
CROWD:
Women's liberation, now!
Equality-- you don't know what
the hell you want!
(exertive exclamations)
BETTY FRIEDAN:
We called this strike
to confront the unfinished
business of our equality.
I'm a very happy housewife
and a very happy mother.
CROWD (chanting):
Go do the dishes!
Go do the dishes!
(cheers and applause)
SHIRLEY CHISHOLM:
We're not going to be
able to do anything,
unless we begin
to do it for ourselves.
(cheers and applause)
I've heard about it, thank you.
Will you come?
Yes.
Good!
REPORTER:
Women's liberation has reared
its pretty head
in the friendly skies.
Leaflets for our first
national convention.
REPORTER:
These women are protesting
what strikes them
as sexual discrimination
on the airlines.
The question is whether or not
a stewardess
is a flying waitress, a sex
object, or a safety expert.
They seem to be a little
bit of all three.
But some of them are so annoyed
by that sex object business,
that they formed an organization
to try and change their image.
I would like you to know that I
am trained to open this door
in case of emergency, to take
care of an epileptic attack,
take care of a heart attack,
if you should have one.
I am there to help you
with these things.
And, also, if none of these
things should happen
on your flight, I will serve you
a meal and offer you a cocktail.
If I were
COOKE:
In 1972,
a group of women founded
Stewardesses for Women's Rights
and they were
really trying to find
a place in the broader women's
movement for stewardesses
who were invested
in political change
as well as workplace change.
DOROTHY SUE COBBLE:
They wanted to professionalize
the occupation,
raise the status
and respect of the job.
They also wanted to make
the airplane safer,
not just for the women who
worked there
and for the employees,
but also for the passengers.
There's really nothing wrong
with being a stewardess.
What's wrong is the image
that has been portrayed
to the public.
That we are empty-headed little
fluffs
that serve you a meal
and take care of anything that
you want taken care of
on the airplane without a
complaint.
In fact, that we're not people.
COBBLE:
They took up economic issues,
like promoting women into
positions
that they had been
excluded from,
but they also focused on issues
that had not been seen
as labor issues,
issues having to do with
appearance and grooming
and control over women's bodies.
I find it depletes me,
I get so angry, I
certain things can set me off,
and I get in an irrational rage
and I have to hold it back.
HEENAN:
I joined because
I've had a lot of frustrations
and I felt that
 
the union was not the answer
to a lot of this stuff.
The union reps
were just a bunch
of 50-, 60-year-old guys
that were oblivious
to the advertising,
and to the sex discrimination.
I just don't think
they were capable of
understanding it or something;
you know, it was like we're
dealing with people
who were in a different
generation.
♪
COOKE:
I don't think that a lot
of feminists thought
that these stewardesses who,
on the surface,
looked so complacent
could be so effective.
I think the experience of
standing up and speaking out
for one's rights and the rights
of others is a contagious one,
and it's one that just,
that really does make waves
and change lives.
It's like throwing a pebble
into a pond,
the waves of reaction continue
for a very long time.
COOKE:
Gloria Steinem
championed stewardesses' rights
from the beginning.
Gloria was so supportive.
She used to come to the offices.
She felt that flight attendants
would make
a good case for changes
that women were going through.
We could represent a new era.
She just had a lot of
positive energy,
like, "We can do this.
We can just, you know,
fight them."
♪
COBBLE:
Stewardesses for Women's Rights
were savvy
in terms of fighting
fire with fire.
They distributed bumper
stickers
and buttons,
and the buttons said,
"Go fly yourself."
The bumper stickers said,
"National, your fly is open."
(plane engine roaring)
And one of the things
they did
FLIGHT ATTENDANT:
May I have your attention,
please.
COBBLE:
was what they
called a "counter-commercial."
I don't think of myself as a
sex object or a servant,
but as someone who is capable of
opening the door of a 747
in the dark, upside down,
and in the water.
Fantasies are fine in their
place, but let's be honest,
the sexpot stewardess image
is unsafe at any altitude.
Think about it.
We went to trial
on December the 4th, 1972.
70 percent of Northwest Airlines
stewardesses
were part of the lawsuit.
It was a six-week trial.
Executives of Northwest
Airlines had to testify.
We were the plaintiffs, so we
had to put our case on first.
♪
(gavel bangs)
INMAN:
Northwest tried to make a
point that
for safety reasons,
they thought that women would
want to share rooms,
whereas men, they didn't
they felt quite safe
staying in their own room.
Why do you put women in double
rooms
and allow men to have single
rooms?
(indistinct talking)
INMAN:
The company's witness said,
"In restaurants,
"you see women
going to the bathroom together.
They don't go
to the ladies' room alone."
That was their explanation.
That this is what women want.
The whole staff in the court
were like,
"Oh, what kind of logic
is that?"
GOTTESMAN:
And I remember
the judge's reaction.
He just leaned back
in his seat and roared.
He was looking up
and he was laughing.
A federal judge today ordered
Northwest Airlines
to do the following things:
pay back salary and interest
to all stewardesses who were
fired since 1965
for being overweight,
give stewardesses paid less
than stewards since 1968
the difference in salary,
and reimburse stewardesses
for the difference in room rent
since 1968 when they doubled up
while stewards had single rooms.
INMAN:
The judge made the decision
in our favor
on all issues.
But then Northwest Airlines was
able to appeal the case.
GOTTESMAN:
Their strategy was
to take every opportunity that
was legally available to them
to defer the final moment
when they were going to have
to pay this money out.
♪
It took 11 years.
INMAN:
My sister
was folding her laundry
and she called me
and said, said,
"Patty, you won."
I said, "What?"
The Supreme Court
today upheld a big payoff
awarded to stewardesses who sued
Northwest Airlines
for sex discrimination.
The women charged
There is justice.
That was my thinking--
there is justice.
GOTTESMAN:
It was a big win.
$60 million
is a big chunk of money.
And for a flight attendant to
be receiving,
in one fell swoop,
$50,000 in back pay.
INMAN:
Women could wear eyeglasses.
They would no longer be
suspended for weight.
And we could have single rooms.
One flight attendant
sent a note and said that
every time she walks around
in her single room, naked,
she thinks of me.
(laughs)
♪
TIEMEYER:
Mary Pat Laffey's victory
is definitive in saying
that under no circumstances
shall a woman
doing this job be presented
with different and unequal
standards
as a man doing this job.
This is what women's workplace
civil rights are designed to do.
COBBLE:
The Mary Pat Laffey case
encouraged flight attendants
to push the boundaries,
and to move into those jobs that
had been off limits.
INMAN:
The women were finally allowed
to have the same benefits that
the men had.
If you were capable,
you could have a man's job.
♪
BRODIGAN:
Now a flight attendant
can be male, can be older,
can be married,
can be any race, ethnic origin.
We're different now,
we kind of match the passengers.
(chuckles)
♪
♪
♪
♪
ROADS:
We weren't fighting
for ourselves.
That's what made
it so wonderful.
I wasn't fighting for me.
I was fighting for the
girl next to me.
♪
♪
ANNOUNCER: Next time
The sun's energy is absorbed
and transformed into heat.
MAN: Mária Telkes was a solar
evangelist.
WOMAN: She really imagined this
as revolutionizing
the way that people lived.
WOMAN: Nothing else would even
get close
to the Dover sun house.
WOMAN:
She's laying the foundation
for pretty much everything now
that we do with solar.
ANNOUNCER:
"The Sun Queen,"
next time
on "American Experience."
Made possible in part
by Liberty Mutual Insurance.
♪