The Great Stewardess Rebellion: How Women Launched a Workplace Revolution at 30,000 Feet

Travel writer Wulfhart (Off Menu) delivers a rousing history of how airline stewardesses in the 1960s and ’70s “harness[ed] the energy of the women’s movement to make radical change.” At the time, Wulfhart explains, female flight attendants were banned from marrying or getting pregnant and aged out of the job in their early 30s. They also made five times less than pilots, had no retirement benefits, and had strict weight limits. Wulfhart spotlights a trio of women who spearheaded the fight: stewardess Patt Gibbs led the movement to break away from the male-dominated Transport Workers Union and form the independent Association of Professional Flight Attendants; her colleague, Tommie Hutto, helped launch the feminist group Stewardesses for Women’s Rights. Sonia Pressman, a lawyer at the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, pushed the agency to find that the airlines were in violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act’s prohibition on sex-based discrimination. Throughout, Wulfhart lucidly contextualizes the stewardesses’ campaign within the larger feminist movement, and shares striking anecdotes of the insults they endured and the dedication it took to reform “the most sexist workplace in America.” The result is an invigorating and inspiring story of women triumphing over discrimination. Agent: Lauren Sharp, Aevitas Creative Management. (Apr.)