​Footage From 1930s Video Shows Sexist Hiring Process For Flight Attendants

We've come a long, long way since the 1930s, an era that suffered from the global effects of the Great Depression, a time before there was a television set in everyone's front room and when jazz, blues and swing music was doing the rounds rather than house, grime or electronica.

But perhaps above all else, what about the sexism?

A clip from a 1936 Universal newsreel shows some good, old-fashioned sexism at play, revealing the slightly bizarre recruitment process for United Airlines flight attendants at the time. The narrator even refers to the 'pedigree' of each woman - yup, a word you'd more often associate with dog breeds.

In the clip, applicants are flown over the Golden Gate Bridge for a physical examination, before being paraded around for closer inspection.

A male doctor can then be seen touching candidates' chests to measure them, along with taking their hip and waist credentials.

According to the voiceover, there were strict age requirements for the role, and the women also had to be 'up to rigid physical requirement'.

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"The rush in air travel has caused the airlines to send out a call for hostesses," the narrator says at the beginning of the video.

"Here are applicants flying over the Golden Gate prior to taking physical examination. Many are called but few are chosen in this profession.

"They not only serve meals, these girls must be registered nurses, under 24, and up to rigid physical requirement."

The scrutinising examinations took all of these strict requirements into consideration, before coming up with each woman's 'batting average'.

The narrator continues: "Take this whirling test. From this, United Airlines doctors can tell what conditions the girls can stand in the air.

"The pedigree of each girl is carefully noted. When the tests are finished, her batting average is figured out to the decimal point."

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According to the Daily Mail, the original United Airlines policy stated that female flight attendants had to be single upon being hired, and that they would get fired if they got married. They'd also be sacked if they exceeded weight regulations or reached the age of 32.

Bizarrely, it wasn't until the 1970s that such age restrictions were lifted in the States - and even longer until the no-marriage rule, which was eventually removed across the airline industry in the 1980s.

Yup, that stuff definitely wouldn't fly these days.

Topics: sexism, United Airlines

Jess Hardiman

Jess is a journalist at LADbible who graduated from Manchester University with a degree in Film Studies, English Language and Linguistics - indecisiveness at its finest, right there. She also works for FOODbible and its sister page Seitanists, which are both a safe haven for her to channel a love for homemade pasta, fennel and everything else in between. You can contact Jess at [email protected].

@Jess_Hardiman