[page 17]
What makes a passenger choose one airline rather those who travel for business, rather than pleasure, and if the films and TV are to be believed, businessmen merely tell their secretaries to book a seat on tomorrow's 10 o'clock plane to Because of international agreements about food, drinks for first-class passengers, fares, and even things like the amount of space between seats, it is not possible for the major airlines to push these aspects of their services too much. So they boast about having the latest, quietest plane (though not the one that is quietest for the people underneath) the fastest, or the one with the most flights per week. No matter at what time your flight is, if it is over, say, an hour in duration, you will get a meal, drinks, ete., and on longer flights on the more competitive routes, filmshows and music.
Planes travel one-tenth full on average, though the cheap charter flights are generally always full - they have to be to make a profit. The purchase by the companies of even bigger and emptier planes every now and then ensures that a ten-year-cycle of profit and loss follows - with more good years than bad, if the airline is to The majority of passengers - those going on business - are men. that the advertising is directed. It is based on the illusion, common to all men it would and one certainly fostered by most advertising, that is possible to magically produce the. physically perfect woman. One airline promises "the beauties of South America" even as soon as you step outside the plane door. Another praises sense in having chosen a new, sexier But that's not all. The airline's prize customers are among the, world's most cossetted men. work, they have attentive secretaries, at home, wives largely free from the petty details of day-to-day living, with "dailies" and au pairs. So the airlines compete to give their passengers the most attentive stewardess. To read some of the ads, it hardly seems possible that in the airline hierarchy, the stewardess ranks lowest. Above her comes the steward, head steward, not the cabin crew. In the days when stewardesses had to have some nursing experience, and often had to prepare food on board, they performed a vital Because lev people travelled abroad, the "romance" of the job compensated for low pay, irregular hours and hard work. lines were able to pick and choose from many prospective sky-waitresses, who in addition to their nursing (or catering) training usually were expected to be able to speak a foreign A lot has happened since then. The number of "glamour" jobs has multiplied, With the fantastie growth of the rag trade, any young girl with nice legs aspires to be a model. The would-be film star may have to be prepared to show more, but that does not stop them multiplying as fast as the film industry is shrinking. Girls hope to earn enough to be able to travel abroad under their own steam. The number of airlines has proliferated. For these reasons and many others, the number of girls that airlines can choose from has shrunk. At one time, they would turn down 95 out of 100 eager applicants - now they would like to see 100 replies to their recruitment ads turn up at one time. Their recruitment officers place ads in local papers in parts of the country where there are few "glamour" jobs for young women, and bring the successful applicants to London for their training. This mainly consists of learning about the plane (though not as much as the steward has to learn - on some lines he may even be taught how to handle a plane in an emergency) and such eventualities as sickness, unexpected births, and so on, as well as the boring routine of the plane-trip itself, endlessly enacted in a mock-up. But above all the girls learn that, although they have been chosen largely on the basis of their looks and personality, these are sadly deficient and have to be made over. Although the planes they will serve on will be mostly empty, it seems that overweight stewardesses would be unsafe at any speed, so they must watch their figures. They must learn how to do their make-up and hair. Expensive consultants from Bond Street salons are called in to advise the girls. They and their carefully chosen uniforms epitomise the airlines's image and both must be perfect. (The girls may be told not only what shoes to buy, but just where - and they are not cheap.) Eventually, they go on thejr first flight, first as a passenger, watch the experienced stewardess, butsoon as a stewardess themselves. Once they have passed their formal exams (based on the regulations about safety, ete. they must know) they are in. U1 course, they real exam they face is not what is in their beads, but the image they present to the outside world.
Behind the endless smiles, the plastic dolls are human beings exploited in the name of big business The truth is, the job entails so much drudgery, so little glamour, that the advertising aimed apparently at the passenger, is really aimed at the girls. No business man really choses an airline because the girls are prettier. But perhaps the girls do. Its nice to know someone wants you.
Leonora Lloyd
[page 18]
IRISH WOMEN'S LIB. MOVEMENT GROWS