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The Great Stewardess Rebellion
- How Women Launched a Workplace Revolution at 30,000 Feet
- Narrated by: Bonnie Friel
- Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins
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Summary
The empowering true story of a group of spirited stewardesses who “stood up to huge corporations and won, creating momentous change for all working women.” (Gloria Steinem, co-founder of Ms. magazine)
It was the Golden Age of Travel, and everyone wanted in. As flying boomed in the 1960s, women from across the United States applied for jobs as stewardesses. They were drawn to the promise of glamorous jet-setting, the chance to see the world, and an alternative to traditional occupations like homemaking, nursing, and teaching.
But as the number of “stews” grew, so did their suspicion that the job was not as picture-perfect as the ads would have them believe. “Sky girls” had to adhere to strict weight limits at all times; gain a few extra pounds and they’d be suspended from work. They couldn’t marry or have children; their makeup, hair, and teeth had to be just so. Girdles were mandatory while stewardesses were on the clock. And, most important, stewardesses had to resign at 32.
Eventually the stewardesses began to push back and it’s thanks to their trailblazing efforts in part that working women have gotten closer to workplace equality today. Nell McShane Wulfhart crafts a rousing narrative of female empowerment, the paradigm-shifting ’60s and ’70s, the labor movement, and the cadre of gutsy women who fought for their rights—and won.
Critic reviews
Named a Best Book of the Year by The Washington Post • Longlisted for PEN America's John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction
"I've spent so much of my life on the road that stewardesses have always been my friends in the sky. Now I am glad to see The Great Stewardess Rebellion, … the true story of women who stood up to huge corporations and won, creating momentous change for all working women.”—Gloria Steinem, co-founder of Ms. magazine
“A meticulously detailed history. . . Rollicking. . . Shocking, infuriating and excruciating. . . [Wulfhart’s] account credits [the stewardesses] as having played a pioneering role in fighting sex discrimination, and she tells the story well. . . It is dramatic, invigorating and instructive as a textbook example of the courage, ingenuity and persistence it takes to effect such progress.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Wulfhart brings a treasure trove of vintage ads and relatable anecdotes to The Great Stewardess Rebellion. . . Wulfhart, through her prodigious research, secures a place for the women who endured all manner of indignities to forge a better future for those who put their lives on the line every day in a job once regarded as frivolous.”—The Washington Post