I got approved for two books about flight attendants one right after another on NetGalley – so all of you must cope with a themed double post from me.
Fly Girl – 3.5 stars
Ann Hood became a flight attendant at TWA in 1978 and worked there for many years. In this book, she recounts the places she saw and the people she met, and how the shifting culture of air travel at the time affected her and her job.
I do like to travel, even though riding in economy in airplanes is not precisely a lovely experience. However, I have long been fascinated by the heyday of jet-setting, back when flying places was a glamorous, expensive business. This book is not quite about that, as Hood became a flight attendant just as air travel was deregulated, allowing airlines to set their own prices and routes. But it was a fascinating read all the same.
The author did a great job conveying how being a flight attendant changed her, helping her gain confidence in herself. It was also interesting to learn the nitty-gritty details of being a flight attendant, ranging from what training they received to how they bid on routes to decide which flights they would end up flying.
However, I did think the recollections became scattered in the second half of the book, likely because there were just so many things that she could have written about that we dart, bird-like, from one morsel to the next in no particular order.
Overall, a nostalgic look back at air travel in the 70s and 80s, told through the eyes of a likable protagonist.
Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.
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The Great Stewardess Rebellion: How Women Launched a Workplace Revolution at 30,000 Feet – 4 stars
Though the post of flight attendant was long touted as a glamorous and enviable one, it was also incredibly tough during the Jet Set age. Called stewardesses then, the women had to put up with low pay, sexualized stereotyping, and age and weight restrictions that had nothing to do with their suitability for the job and everything to do with being eye candy.
In this book, the reader is taken through how flight attendants fought for workers’ rights, often going to war over things that depressingly should never have existed, such as restrictions stating women had to be unmarried and under the age of 35 to keep working. I liked that the author told this story through the efforts of specific women but made sure to demonstrate how it was a group effort still. It was interesting to contrast this with Fly Girl, as Hood enjoyed many of the rights won by flight attendants of the generation discussed here.
In the first half of the book, Wulfhart goes over how the passage of Title VII changed many of the regulations around flight attendants, though battling sex discrimination cases was still an uphill battle when prosecutors did not find such cases worthy of attention. I was interested to learn that flight attendants were on the forefront of the implementation of this act, setting precedents in sex discrimination cases for generations to come.
In the second half of the book, the author focuses on unions and the organization Stewardesses for Womens’ Rights, battling sexist messaging about flight attendants and trying to gain the privileges that their male counterparts, in this role and otherwise, held.. The book ends with the story of how flight attendants broke away from the Transport Worker’s Union to form their own union, advancing the tale into the present day.
I found this a really informative read about a subject I knew little about, and appreciated how information was relayed in an easily digestible way. However, I wished that we could have learned more about how women of color fit into ‘the Great Stewardess Rebellion,’ which was touched upon but not really elaborated.
Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.