On this edition of Your Call, we talk about the flight attendant profession as a tool for liberation and civil rights. Almost eighty percent of flight attendants are women, but it wasn't always that way. In the 1920’s, women helped shape the flight attendant position, as a way to travel the world and live on their own. We speak with women who helped make a new PBS documentary, telling the story of how flight attendants have led the legal fight for gender and racial equity in the workplace.
Guests:
Sarah Colt, Co-Director and Writer of the "Fly With Me" documentary film project.
Helen Dobrowski, Director and Producer of "Fly With Me".
Casey Grant, early African-American flight attendant, and author of the book, Stars in the Sky: Stories of the First African American Flight Attendants
Resources:
UK Guardian:‘It’s going to be historic’: US flight attendants picket at major airports
NPR: 2 flight attendants sue United Airlines for discrimination on Dodgers charter flights
AP: Delta Air Lines, facing another union attempt to organize flight attendants, is raising their pay
Women in Aviation International: Stats on Women in Aviation Careers in the US
PBS: ‘A revolution waiting to happen’: The Surprising Alliance between Stewardesses and Gloria Steinem
