Fakoyejo OlalekanA former flight attendant, now novelist, Ann Hood, has revealed the stringent process she and her colleagues in the aviation industry had to go through in order to keep their jobs in the United States.
Hood was one of the lucky ladies chosen to fly with planes around the world at a time the aviation industry was coming of age. She had applied alongside 14,000 applicants in 1978, but airline company, TWA, only selected 560 flight attendants.
During her time, Hood said gaining weight was a crime that could get flight attendants fired from the job in US. She explained that the airline operator mandated them to maintain the stature they had during their selection.
According to Hood, one of her friends got sacked for adding weight beyond that which she had when she was employed, “All airlines sent a chart with your application, you looked at your height and the maximum weight and if you did not fall within that, they wouldn’t even interview you.”
She added, “But once you got hired, at least at TWA, you couldn’t go up to that maximum weight. You had to stay at your hiring weight, which in my case was about 15 pounds less than my maximum limit.”
Hood continued sharing her experience in her novel, ‘Fly Girl’, disclosing, “My roommate got fired over this. The really terrible thing about it, other than what it did to women, is that this restriction was not removed until the 1990s.”
While describing working as a flight attendant sexist, she said it enticed her because the job allowed her to see the world. She got many admirers during her time in the aviation industry, dating a flight passenger for five years.
The aviation industry is known for its stringent rules. Some of them includes sacking air hostesses for getting married or giving birth, although these rules have now been lifted.
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