Moving the needle: 'Fly with Me' documents how women fought discrimination as flight attendants

Feb. 17—Helen Dobrowski is awaiting a special screening of "Fly with Me" in Washington, D.C.

After two years of work on the documentary, it's ready for an audience.

"It's a story that we had to tell," she says. "It was important to tell this piece of history because it began a change for women."

"Fly with Me" will air at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 20, on New Mexico PBS, channel 5.1. It will also be available to stream on the PBS app.

The documentary tells the story of the pioneering young women who became flight attendants at a time when single women were unable to order a drink, eat alone in a restaurant, own a credit card or get a prescription for birth control.

Becoming a "stewardess," as they were called, offered unheard-of opportunities for travel, glamour, adventure and independence.

Although often maligned as feminist sellouts, these women were on the front lines of the battle to assert gender equality and transform the workplace.

Dobrowski says the film features first-hand accounts, personal stories and a rich archival record, which weaves together the important but neglected history of the women who changed the world while flying it.

Dobrowski worked with Sarah Colt as co-directors.

"We had about six months of research," she says. "What's amazing is that each day, we learned something new and that informed the narrative."

Dobrowski says a cabin attendant was considered a man's job at the dawn of the commercial airline industry.

But by the 1950s, as planes became safer and more reliable, stewardesses became a critical selling point for airlines fighting for market share in a heavily regulated industry.

At a time when single, middle-class women were expected to marry and raise a family, becoming a stewardess offered remarkable opportunities.

The job required glamour, intelligence, independence and grit.

But there were downsides.

The airlines required every stewardess to be young, single and attractive, which, in 1950s America, meant white.

Pat Banks, who failed to land even one interview after successfully completing a stewardess training program in 1956, filed a complaint with the New York State Commission on Discrimination.

After four years, she won and was hired by Capital Airlines, making her one of the first Black flight attendants in the U.S.

The airlines didn't discriminate solely on the basis of race.

Stewardesses could not be married and were forced to retire as early as age 32. Weight and height guidelines were strictly enforced; women could not wear eyeglasses and had to share hotel rooms, unlike their male counterparts.

Barbara "Dusty" Roads decided to fight back. She joined her labor union, lobbied Congress and strategically courted media attention. But without a federal law prohibiting workplace discrimination, it was an uphill battle.

Then on July 2, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act. Designed to address race-based inequalities in American life, the law also included a clause offering worker protections against gender discrimination.

On the day the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, set up to enforce the new anti-discrimination laws, opened, Roads and her best friend Jean Montague filed a complaint against the airlines' age limit. Within a year of the EEOC's opening, nearly 100 cases citing gender discrimination had been submitted by flight attendants.

"Dusty was very important to the movement," Dobrowski says. "She passed last year and I'm sad that she couldn't see the final cut of the film."

Just as stewardesses were gaining momentum in their fight for workplace rights, airlines transformed their ad campaigns. Once marketed as glamorous hostesses in the sky, now they were being presented as sex objects.

At the same time, as the Vietnam War intensified, stewardesses often found themselves on the front lines, flying in and out of Saigon to shuttle troops back and forth.

"You're being marketed, basically, as a Barbie doll, and yet doing more and more complex work," historian Phil Tiemeyer explains. "There's a fundamental incompatibility between these two things."

Dobrowski says there are many stories still to be told and if the documentary was made 10 years ago, there would have been those opportunities because the women were still around.

"I hope people can watch this and realize that these women were fighting back and didn't realize they were being an activist," she says. "They are the women who became flight attendants and have always been front and center. We have these women to thank for the change. There's still a long way to go, but moving the needle always matters."