For all our nostalgia about the “Golden Age of Air Travel”, it was more mythical than we like to think.  As with other forms of transport then, until the 1970s, commercial and military aviation were strictly gendered and racist divisions of labour, both in the cockpit and cabin – piloting was a lifetime career for white men, “stewardessing” a temporary one for women.  Western culture was built upon images of men as chivalrous knights, cowboys, and soldiers — all living rugged manly lives, their greatest joy the comradeship on cattle drives, or men-of-war or in the trenches. In...

For all our nostalgia about the "Golden Age of Air Travel", it was more mythical than we like to think. As with other forms of transport then, until the 1970s, commercial and military aviation were strictly gendered and racist divisions of labour, both in the cockpit and cabin - piloting was a lifetime career for white men, "stewardessing" a temporary one for women. Western culture was built upon images of men as chivalrous knights, cowboys, and soldiers - all living rugged manly lives, their greatest joy the comradeship on cattle drives, or men-of-war or in the trenches. In reality, by the...