The Great Stewardess Rebellion

“The Great Stewardess Rebellion: How Women Launched a Workplace Revolution at 30,000 Feet”
by Nell McShane Wulfhart
2022/Doubleday Books
$30/320 pages

In 1961, at the age of 19, Patt Gibbs applied to be a stewardess with American Airlines and moved to the “charm farm” to learn to walk in high heels, style her hair identical to that of her co-workers, wear the ultra-strict underwear-to-outerwear uniform and cater to businessmen on the short flights she was assigned. It wasn’t until she accidentally became a member of the stewardess union—a time that coincided with the Women’s Movement—that she and other women began to question those stringent rules and others.

The government had just passed the Equal Opportunity Act, so why didn’t women have access to better jobs with the airlines?

Why was the pay different for men and women for the same work? Why were men’s work rules more relaxed? Stewardesses began to file grievances over issues, which led to lawsuits on behalf of a growing number of women in an industry that was itself growing. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission went to work. The Teamster’s Union was briefly involved.

Every time they were denied better and equal working conditions, the stewardesses found other ways to fight.

In “The Great Stewardess Rebellion,” Author Nell McShane Wulfhart acts as a teacher of culture, showing how American society altered the way women worked and vice versa.