A job advertisement from the 1940s has left many in disbelief after highlighting the requirements for flight attendants of that era.
This vintage flyer from Transcontinental & Western Air Inc (TWA) outlined some rather peculiar criteria for their ideal air hostess, surfacing from about 80 years ago post-World War Two.
Resurfacing on Reddit, the ad has shocked many with its ‘gross’ and ‘absurd’ criteria, focusing less on qualifications and more on the physical attributes of applicants.
The list of requirements starts with a specified age range for cabin crew members, limited to 21 to 26 years, along with a height restriction.
Applicants were mandated to be no shorter than 5’2 and no taller than 5’6, though the ad doesn’t explain why these specific measurements were necessary. Some speculate it might be related to passengers’ seating height.
Another surprising criterion was the applicant’s weight, which had to be between 100 and 130 pounds.
There was one educational requirement, however, as candidates needed to have either completed one year of college or be a registered nurse.
Additional peculiarities in the list included the need for applicants to be single and possess good vision.
The post on r/OldSchoolRidiculous saw Redditors expressing shock at the airline’s tough requirements.
“Were they looking for absurdly small women or is this one of those people used to be smaller on average sorta things?” questioned one user. “Pretty gross still, just, a 100lb ADULT woman?!?”
Another Redditor noted the advertisement’s minimal educational requirement, wondering if TWA was targeting college dropouts.
“Getting hired as a flight attendant was considered an excellent reason to drop out of college back in the day, for someone who’d prefer to travel and earn a modest salary rather than pay tuition and study,” explained a third person.
One Reddit user shared that their mother was employed by TWA as a hostess without being a registered nurse or having a college education, though she was dismissed after getting married.
“Hostesses were routinely terminated upon marriage, or upon reaching the age of 32. TWA even stated bluntly, ‘If you haven’t found anyone by that age, we don’t want you either’,” shared the Redditor.
Maintaining the weight requirement also proved challenging, as one woman recounted her mother’s reliance on black coffee, skim milk, and cigarettes while working for TWA, alongside enduring random weigh-ins.
The former employee was reportedly suspended ‘briefly but traumatically’ for minor weight gains, according to the Redditor.
Despite this, the woman applied multiple times in the late 1970s and found that many outdated requirements, such as those for a ‘symmetrical figure,’ were still in place.
“Flight attendants with very large breasts, in the days when augmentation was rare and dangerous, were sometimes hired, but they also were subject to disproportionate harassment during years when sexual pestering was expected by all female employees everywhere,” she noted.
The Redditor felt ‘relieved not to have been offered a job.’
In agreement, another commented: “My mom was a TWA stewardess in the 70s. The requirements weren’t much different.”
TWA operated in the USA from 1930 until 2001, when it was acquired by American Airlines. Fortunately, today’s airline industry does not impose such age, height, weight, and relationship status criteria for its cabin crew.