In celebration of Women’s History Month, PBS American Experience is presenting an encore of the documentary Fly With Me, which explores the history of flight attendants. It will air on Tuesday, March 18, at 9 PM ET. Check your local PBS station for broadcast times in your area. Featured in the documentary are American Airlines Flight Attendants Dusty Roads and Jean Montague, along with Elaine Rock, the author of the biography Dusty Roads: Meet the Hidden Figure Who Really Ignited the Women’s Movement. 

In the 1950s and 1960s, becoming a stewardess, later known as a flight attendant, was one of the few ways young, single women could experience adventure and independence. But beneath the allure of jet-setting glamour lay a rigid set of rules that dictated their careers—and their lives. Stewardesses could be fired for getting married, turning 32, or gaining weight. They endured humiliating weigh-ins, mandatory girdles with “flick checks” to ensure compliance, and were paid less than their male counterparts.

In 1953, one woman refused to accept the status quo. Dusty Roads, a stewardess for American Airlines, became a fierce advocate for her peers, challenging these discriminatory policies head-on. As a union leader, she fought tirelessly for fair treatment and equality in the airline industry. Her efforts propelled her to Capitol Hill, where she became one of the first female union lobbyists to Congress, pushing for legislative change.

Her landmark battle against American Airlines and airline industry-wide policies led to a groundbreaking moment in history—Dusty filed the first-ever sex discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) after the passage of the Civil Rights Act and Title VII. She took to the frontlines of the fight for gender equality, reshaping workplace norms and paving the way for future generations.

Dusty’s story, along with those of other brave stewardesses who confronted these injustices, is highlighted in this enlightening PBS program—a must-watch for anyone interested in the untold history of the women’s movement and the struggle for workplace rights.

See the trailer at: Fly With Me: Trailer or stream it on their website at the PBS website or the PBS App.

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The Origins of Women’s History Month: A Legacy of Advocacy

In 1978, a group of visionary educators from Sonoma County, California—Molly Murphy MacGregor, Mary Ruthsdotter, Maria Cuevas, Paula Hammett, and Bette Morganto—founded the National Women’s History Project (NWHP) in Santa Rosa. They were motivated by a crucial realization: women’s historical contributions were frequently overlooked or missing from school textbooks. Determined to change this, they sought to ensure that women’s historical roles would be recognized and celebrated.

After successfully establishing Women’s History Week in Sonoma County, the NWHP led a coalition that effectively urged President Carter to issue the first Presidential Proclamation, designating the week of March 8, 1980, as the inaugural National History Week. March 8 is also recognized as International Women’s Day. With support from Representative Barbara Mikulski and Senator Orrin Hatch, Congress declared March as National Women’s History Month. This milestone has since transformed into an annual celebration. From the beginning, the project established a theme each year and provided essential educational resources and materials to honor the trailblazing women who shaped history.

In 2018, the project evolved into the National Women’s History Alliance (NWHA), expanding its mission to promote women’s history all year long. Today, NWHA is the premier national organization dedicated to providing information, training, and resources on multicultural women’s history—supporting educators, community leaders, and anyone eager to enhance their understanding of women’s roles in U.S. history. You can explore their initiatives and the significance of Women’s History Month on their website: nationalwomenshistoryalliance.org.

Honoring a Hidden Figure: Dusty Roads

One of the remarkable women honored by the NWHP was Dusty Roads, recognized in 2017 as a Trailblazing Woman in Labor and Business. Roads was a resident of Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California, where the NWHP was located. As a former American Airlines stewardess, she played a pivotal role in the women’s rights movement before it had a name. In the 1950s, she took a courageous stand against widespread discrimination, advocating for fair working conditions for stewardesses as a union leader and congressional lobbyist.

For 15 relentless years, she fought against and overturned policies that mandated stewardesses to retire at the age of 32 and barred them from working if they were married. In 1963, she captured the nation’s attention by leading the first-ever union protest for stewardesses, and in 1965, she helped a colleague file the nation’s first sex-based discrimination complaint with the newly established Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Dusty Roads’ fearless advocacy paved the way for the women’s movement that followed. To learn more about her groundbreaking story, check out my book, “Dusty Roads: Meet the Hidden Figure Who Ignited the Women’s Movement.” I’m honored that Molly MacGregor, a key figure behind the National Women’s History Project, wrote the Foreword, further solidifying Dusty’s rightful place in history.

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AND…

FROM: February Cloverdale Connect Newspaper:

THIS IS YOUR MUSEUM, CLOVERDLE
Elissa Morrash, Executive Director
Cloverdale Historical Society

Call for Women’s Stories!

This year we are proud to help present a new book by Cloverdale resident and member of the Cloverdale Historical Society, Elaine Rock. The book is Dusty Roads: Meet the Hidden Figure Who Really Ignited the Women’s Movement. Dusty, a stewardess for American Airlines, became the voice for women when it was mandatory for stewardesses to wear girdles, maintain unrealistic weight standards, be willing to be paid less than men in the same job, and be forced out of their jobs at age 32 for younger women,

By Elaine’s telling, Dusty was everything a woman wanted to be in the 1950s. Tall, beautiful, outgoing…and forceful, determined and courageous. The last attributes are not the ones admired in females in the 50s, or in subsequent decades, either.

This year (April 27), we will produce a Speaker Series with Elaine Rock about her book, and the ten years it took to write it.

In the menatime, we would like to know the stories of local women who have their own businesses: what it takes to do it and what your experience has been. Whether youhave a business now or have retired from one, we’d like to know your story. Contact the Executive Driector, Elissa Morrash, for details at office@cloverdalehistory.org.

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U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said, “The era of tolerating poor treatment of airline passengers with disabilities is over. With this penalty, we are setting a new standard of accountability for airlines that violate the civil rights of passengers with disabilities. By setting penalties at levels beyond the mere cost of doing business for airlines, we’re aiming to change how the industry behaves and prevent these kinds of abuses from happening in the first place.”

You would think the airline would know better. As a former corporate executive, I always marvel at why some leaders in management think they can ignore or get away with such unfair treatment of others. Was it worth the $50 million the company now has to forfeit?  

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The Points Guy posted a great review, written by Harriet Baskas, about tonight’s PBS American Experience documentary. She mentions how Dusty and Jean entered the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission after the 1964 Civil Rights Act and Title VII passed Congress and filed the first discrimination complaint in the country based on gender discrimination.

In the 1950s and ’60s, “stewardesses were glamorous. They were beautiful. They were poised,” says former Delta Air Lines flight attendant Casey Grant at the beginning of a new documentary film about the history of flight attendants.

But over time, thousands of stewardesses, as these workers were called then, were also angry and exasperated by the working conditions they had to endure in the sky and on the ground.

“Fly With Me,” premiering Tuesday, Feb. 20, on PBS’ “American Experience,” tells the story of women hired as stewardesses when airline policies dictated everything from their weight to their marriage status who went on to fight — and win — battles for equal pay, gender and race equality and workplace reform.

“So many of the women who became flight attendants were young, ambitious, and adventurous,” says Sarah Colt, who directed the film with Helen Dobrowski. “Some thought they’d do the job for two or three years and then follow societal norms of the ’50s and ’60s and then get married and move on. But the job became much more of a career for them.”

Here’s a link to read her complete article.

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Flight Attendants across the industry are fighting to raise the standards for our career. More than two-thirds of the U.S. Flight Attendants are in contract negotiations right now, including red-hot contract fights at Alaska, Air Wisconsin, United, Omni, American, Southwest, Frontier and more.

This moment is not about what uniform we wear: It’s about what unites us, and that unity transcends airlines. Our time on the job must be compensated. We need retirement security. We need flexibility and control of our lives. Legacy sexism that attitudes towards this industry continues to traditionally devalued our jobs must be stamped out and replaced with the true value of our work. Like every other worker around the world, we need to go to work to live, not just live to work. We are ready to do whatever it takes to achieve the landmark contracts that reflect the profits our work creates. Together, 100,000 Flight Attendants are pushing our careers forward this year — battling corporate greed.

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https://www.pbs.org/video/trailer-fly-with-me/

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Here’s a photo of her on her 95th birthday in April of 2023.

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