Welcome aboard Season 6 of the Girl Friends, which takes place 30,000 feet in...
1960s, and tells the story of an extraordinary group of women. What would you like to drink, would you like some coffee, would you like some tea, stewardesses, in the golden age of air travel? The stewardesses were so beautiful and so nice, with their perfect hair, perfect uniforms, perfect smiles. The flight attendant seemed to me to be like
just very well put together, always women, young women. But in this era, at this altitude,
the reality of their job was anything but effortless.
“It was the most sexiest job I think you could have.”
The women serving you snacks and glasses of scotch have been told they have to be single. I'm not saying that you were on the plane, having sex with people, but you certainly had to go along with their flirtations.
There were people that knew that I was married, I just never admitted that they have to be
skinny.
“I won't say we were believing, but I think that we were starving ourselves.”
And once they're deemed to be too old, they're fired. You had to sign something saying you would retire at age 32. But then, one day, a group of stewardesses said, "Enough is enough. This has got to stop. It's gone too far." They had had it with this mother-epping patriarchy on this mother-epping plane. All the airlines were they were trying to sell sex. Not safety.
“They risked their livelihoods and their reputations, just having the freedom to do your job.”
Without having to be an object. They harness the power of the unions and the law. Women were fighting for our equal rights. My goodness, we deserved that. They battled to alter the course of their careers.
Fighting back feels good because it feels powerful. And ultimately, they leveled the playing
field for women across the United States. I just hope that if some young ladies sees this program and she's being taken advantage of where she's being discriminated against, she realizes there are ways that she can get it solved. It just takes a little bit of courage and a little bit of fluck and maybe some legal help along the way.
I'm Nell McShane Wolfhardt, and you can listen to the girlfriend, flight or fight, starting on August 24th on the I-Hart Radio App, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.
