Internet users are shocked by a 1940 list of requirements to become a flight attendant

Internet users shocked by 1940s list of requirements to become a flight attendant
Internet users shocked by 1940s list of requirements to become a flight attendant (Photo: Jacky Watt/Unsplash)

A Reddit post showing a list of requirements to become a flight attendant in the 1940s is leaving internet users puzzled.

The Transcontinental & Western Air Inc (TWA) brochure reveals some of the criteria for their ideal flight attendant in an advertisement published about 80 years ago, near the end of World War II.

Among the requirements, a woman wanting to join the crew had to be between 21 and 26 years old and taller than 1.58 m but no taller than 1.70 m.

As if that wasn’t enough, the airline also demanded that the woman weigh more than 45 kg but no more than 58 kg, be single, and have “good eyesight.”

Fortunately, the list included at least one professional qualification: having completed at least 1 year of college or being a registered nurse.

(Photo: Reddit)

Still, the list left Reddit users completely shocked. “Kind of gross, still, 45 kg for an adult woman?” questioned one user. “My mother was a TWA flight attendant in the ’70s. The requirements weren’t much different,” said another.

A third user revealed that his mother was hired by TWA to work as a hostess even though she hadn’t completed one year of college. However, she was immediately fired as soon as she got married.

“Hostesses were routinely fired after marriage or when they reached the age of 32. TWA even bluntly stated: ‘If you haven’t found anyone by that age, we don’t want you either,’” they revealed.

Photo and video: Unsplash / Reddit. This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.

Back to top