The Untold History Of Flight Attendants

A group of female flight attendants standing next to each other in front of a Douglas DC-3 airplane, with the photo likely taken in the late-1930s to 1940s.

“Chicken or vegetarian?” is a question often asked by flight attendants during long overseas flights. However, these people are more than just servers and safety demonstrators. In the skies, flight attendants are mediators, first responders, firefighters, and customer service experts, all of which show just how indispensable flight attendants are today. These members of the aircrew receive rigorous training in emergency medical care, security protocols, decompression procedures, conflict resolution, and firefighting by airline companies. However, despite all of this training, demanding schedules, irregular hours, and time away from home, flight attendants are not paid as much as most may think, earning a median salary of $68,370 in 2023, according to U.S. News.

The world’s first flight attendant was Heinrich Kubis in 1912 on board a Zeppelin, attending to passengers on the DELAG Zeppelin LZ 10 Schwaben and the LZ 129 Hindenburg. Remarkably, he was able to survive the infamous Hindenburg accident. At the time of the explosion, he was in the dining room, helping passengers jump to safety, and he himself jumped out a window when the airship was nearing the ground. In the late 1920s, airlines in the United States began formally employing stewards—another term for referring to flight attendants—beyond simply serving food, as they were made responsible for managing customer service and acting as a guide. Airlines that started employing such stewards include Stout Airways in 1926, Western Airlines in 1928, and Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) in 1929. However, in this era, only men could be found on airplanes serving as stewards, as women were often not found in the professional workplace at all. Flight attendant roles were exclusively for men until 1930.

Boeing Air Transport, now called United Airlines, hired registered nurse Ellen Church to assist passengers, and it was something the airline industry had never seen before. Due to the expectations of society at that time, however, Church could not be hired by United Airlines to fly airplanes, even though she was a registered pilot. Nevertheless, she was determined to defy these expectations and pursue her passion for flying. She suggested that in order to soothe the public’s fear and mistrust of flying, brought about by aircraft being a novel technology, registered nurses should be able to serve on flights as stewardesses. Soon, other airlines began to follow, which not only increased positive perception on the safety of air travel but also pushed gender equality forward.

A flight attendant was one of only a few jobs in the 1930s that allowed women, and during the Great Depression, this led to stewardesses being one of the most competitive jobs on the market. 2,000 women applied for just 43 positions offered by Transcontinental and Western Airlines in December 1935, resulting in an acceptance rate of a little over 2%. This means that statistically, becoming a stewardess during the Great Depression was harder than being admitted into an Ivy League college today, though nowhere near as competitive as getting high-level jobs at Goldman Sachs or Apple. With the glimmering promises of economic security, travel perks, the glamour of air travel at the time, and no other enticing jobs, the industry quickly became saturated with women. Since laws surrounding women’s rights were still lacking, airlines found that hiring women was a way to cut corners. 

The requirements to be a hostess, or stewardess, on a Transcontinental & Western Air (TWA) flight.

Stewardesses were paid lower wages compared to their male counterparts, slashing labor costs and allowing airlines to sell tickets for cheaper, increasing demand. Additionally, stewardesses were marketed as both caretakers and symbols of modern sophistication for the airline industry. Airlines specifically sought after young, sharp women who would help sell the novelty and luxury of air travel. Thus, the stewardess archetype was born. This change in marketing and expectations can best be seen in the application requirements for a stewardess in the 1930s. A New York Times article from 1936 writes, “the girls who qualify for hostesses [an alternative term for stewardesses] must be petite; weigh 100 to 118 pounds; height 5 feet to 5 feet 4 inches; age 20 to 26 years”. Although stewardesses helped sell air travel to the public and popularized it, the airline industry did not treat women well for many years. 

The frequent mistreatment of stewardesses was widespread, including forcing them to wear uncomfortable and inappropriate uniforms, putting innuendos in slogans, and enforcing strict body standards. In an attempt to protest the industry, it led to some of the most successful cases of female unions in history. Because their glamour obscured their work, flight attendants began organizing in the late 1940s and 1950s to demand recognition as trained professionals. Soon, the economic devaluation of women’s work was no more. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed sex discrimination and paved the way for more landmark lawsuits against the airline industry regarding restrictive policies on no-marriage, age, weight, and height. By the 1970s, airlines were forced to abandon the terms hostess and stewardess, instead switching to the more inclusive and gender-neutral term flight attendant.

Today, the work flight attendants do continues to remain very important. Flight attendants, in their role, are at the forefront of history, both good and bad, including women’s rights, the boom of air travel, and the scrutiny of air travel following major incidents like the September 11 Attacks. After the September 11 Attacks, public perception of airplane safety took a significant hit, so in many cases, it was left in the hands of flight attendants to rebuild trust and confidence. In addition, the majority of today’s safety standards and flight attendant requirements were created after the attacks, leading to even more rigorous training for flight attendants. For example, today’s flight attendant training covers important topics like threat detection, crisis communication, and defensive tactics. Flight attendants use these skills to keep passengers safe and secure. During key moments like boarding and serving food or when observing passenger behavior, they carefully watch for any signs of suspicious activity, such as ignoring safety instructions or showing excessive anger. These efforts help ensure everyone remains safe and comfortable on the flight. 

Whenever crew members notice something out of the ordinary, they covertly use predefined code words or discreetly communicate on the cabin interphone to inform the senior flight attendant and pilots, making sure not to cause any unnecessary worry among the passengers. If the situation escalates, the flight attendants may move from general crisis communication to physical restraint or self-defense, for which most have received training. Flight attendants are vital in ensuring the safety and well-being of all passengers. Though it is a laborious task to monitor the cabin while serving people constantly, many flight attendants are drawn to the job by their passion for travel or the many benefits offered by airlines, despite the relatively lower base salary. It is important to recognize that without flight attendants, the general public would have never trusted air travel in the first place, and the in-flight experience would be vastly different.