Secret History: The Pre-Stewardess Training Program
Dateline: 1967-1968
The problem was real. There were not enough female students at Countdown College. On Sept. 22, 1958, when the first classes were at Eau Gallie Junior High School, only six of the 154 students were women.1Anonymous. (1958-1959). Keuper Scrapbooks Volume 1 May 1958-December 1960. Harry P. Weber University Archives of Florida Institute of Technology Special Collections, John H. Evans Library, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL. Seven years later, there was only one full-time female student. Margaret Latonik, a math major, acknowledged her status was somewhat unusual, “but you forget about being a girl among so many men in about a month.”
A year later, Keuper claimed that the college had turned a corner. There had been a 1,000% improvement in the male-female ratio. In April 1966, he boasted that there were 10 full-time female students in the 1,100-person student body. He may have overstated the numbers. Gail Rhode, an oceanography student, estimated that the male-female ratio in her classes was “something like 150-to-one.”2Anonymous. (1968). Keuper Scrapbooks Volume 14 August-December 1968. Harry P. Weber University Archives of Florida Institute of Technology Special Collections, John H. Evans Library, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL.
The Aerospace Technical Institute
A year later, Keuper thought he had solved the coed recruitment problem. The idea came in a conversation with Jerry Lauderbaugh. Keuper had recruited Lauderbaugh, a retired U.S. Air Force pilot with degrees from the University of Illinois and the University of Chicago, to lead the newly created Aerospace Technical Institute (ATI).
“Our immediate attention will be focused on the commercial sector of aviation in particular and the air transportation industry,” Keuper said.3Anonymous. (1967-1968). Keuper Scrapbooks Volume 12 November 1967-March 1968. Harry P. Weber University Archives of Florida Institute of Technology Special Collections, John H. Evans Library, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL. ATI would train pilots, engineering technicians and mechanics. The program would be based at Cape Kennedy Regional Airport4Melbourne Orlando International Airport. Classes would begin in September 1968.
Keuper and Lauderbaugh hatched the idea of using ATI to bring female students to campus. A 1966 bestseller, Coffee, Tea or Me?5Trudy, B., Rachel, J., & Bain, D. (2014). Coffee, Tea or Me? may have been a catalyst. This ghostwritten book purported to be “the uninhibited memoir” of two Eastern Airline stewardesses6By the end of the 1970s, the term “stewardess” was replaced with “flight attendant.” In the 1980s, males were allowed to apply for positions as flight attendants.. The book marks how much has changed in American life. Chapter 10, titled “They Look so Normal,” provided an antediluvian screed on homosexuality. Chapter 13 identified some reasons passengers could be denied boarding, including “most recently, men wearing earrings.”
A Dream Career with Wings
Donald Bain, who wrote Coffee, Tea or Me?, served as a public relations officer at American Airlines. Bain’s jet-setting surrogates, Trudy Baker and Rachel Jones, neglected to mention the draconian, sexist standards the airline industry imposed on stewardesses. To work as a stewardess in the 1960s, women had to meet weight guidelines, be single, have no children and were forced to retire at 32. Airlines reserved the right to fire stewardesses for being as little as 2 pounds over the weight limit. These restrictions continued into the 1990s. The “no marriage” clause was dropped in the 1980s. Weight restrictions were relaxed in the 90s. To the male-dominated airline executives, stewardesses were a marketing tool. The PR message was clear: “Sex sells airplane seats.”7Mallinson, H. (2018). Flight secrets: Flight attendant reveals strict 1960s cabin crew rules. Retrieved from https://www.express.co.uk/travel/articles/996495/flight-secrets-cabin-crew-air-hostess-1960s-plane
Keuper and Lauderbaugh were not as blatant. They did, however, want to increase the campus sex ratio. Their idea was to create a “pre-stewardess” program at ATI. The plan was to launch a six-week course for young women in June 1968. A brochure was published in the spring advertising a “concentrated program to acquaint and prepare young women for airline careers.” Applicants were invited to imagine finding employment in the “glamorous world of fashion and travel.”
“Do you like action?” the brochure inquired. If so, “a stewardess is constantly on the go meeting different people, people that most young girls wouldn’t have an opportunity to meet.”
Housing would be provided in the “tastefully appointed rooms” in Brownlie Hall, where students could relax on the patio adjacent to the “refreshing swimming pool.”
ATI’s Pre-Stewardess Training Program would provide an opportunity to “study side by side with tomorrow’s young airline pilots and space engineers and join the exclusive club of the ‘jet-set career girls.’”
The program’s total cost was $405, including $150 tuition, a $95 flight lab fee and $160 for room and board. Following airline guidelines, applicants were required to meet specific physical guidelines: minimum height of 5 feet 2 inches, maximum 5 feet 9 inches; minimum weight of 95 pounds, maximum 140 pounds. In a bold move, ATI pre-stewardess training applicants were allowed to wear glasses. This broke with the industry standard. In 1968, United Airlines stipulated that stewardesses must “be attractive” and have vision of 20/40 or better without glasses.8Eck, L. (2021). Being a Stewardess in the 1960s. Retrieved from https://blog.museumofflight.org/being-a-stewardess-in-the-1960s
Breaking the Chains of Patriarchy
ATI’s pre-stewardess program never materialized. Florida Today reported that only two local high school graduates had registered. In 1968, young women were joining the women’s liberation movement. In September 1968, 400 feminists from New York, Florida, Boston, Detroit and New Jersey staged a protest at the Miss America Pageant in Atlantic City. They rallied against the “degrading Mindless-Boob-Girlie Symbol” that the contest represented. Times were changing.
Despite its small numbers, Countdown College had always attracted women who aspired to careers in science and engineering. Phillis (Surwillo) Putnam ’62 M.S. was the first woman to earn a degree (master’s in space technology) at BEC. Others would follow. “Three girls,” George Tomlinson wrote four years later, “are members of a rare but growing breed of women who aren’t expected to take ‘no’ for an answer if they decide to rocket off to the moon.”9Anonymous. (1965-1966). Keuper Scrapbooks Volume 7 October 1965-March 1966. Harry P. Weber University Archives of Florida Institute of Technology Special Collections, John H. Evans Library, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL. Tomlinson, a columnist at the Orlando Evening Star, reported that there were 42 female full- and part-time students attending BEC. Two women, Barbara (Bauman) Nagle ’69 and Kay Raeger, were studying space technology; Kathy Jones and Ethel Maxam were majoring in physics. Tomlinson reported that the majority of the remaining students were math majors.
Liberal Arts and Athletics to the Rescue
At Countdown College, women were trailblazers. Still, the scarcity of coeds continued to be an issue through the late 1960s. In 1969, The Crimson conducted a survey in which 100 students were asked to identify what they considered the college’s “environmental social problem.” P.S. Alpren summarized the findings in an editorial in The Crimson titled “Solutions for a Social Life at FIT.”
Alpren reported that there was a consensus among students that the social (read male-female) problem could be traced “to the fact that women in this area seem to get married immediately upon graduation from high school or they leave the vicinity to attend college elsewhere.” The result is that the remaining women are high school age and therefore are legally and socially restricted.”
Alpren suggested that a possible solution would be for Florida Tech to follow Carnegie-Mellon University’s lead and expand the university’s liberal arts curriculum.
Much has changed at Florida Tech since the 1960s. In 1971, the Aerospace Technical Institute ceased to be an affiliate and became the School of Aeronautics. The 1970s brought the formation of the School of Psychology and the expansion of offerings in the humanities and communication. Additionally, Title IX led the university to expand its athletics program. Women’s crew joined the Panther roster in 1972. Volleyball followed in 1978, softball in 1980, cross country in 1982 and basketball in 1986.
The growing number of female students majoring in science, engineering, psychology, communication and the humanities did not dispel sexist stereotypes. In the 1970s, The Crimson regularly published “Campus Coed” profiles, which inevitably led with the student’s height and bust measurements. Sexism persists.
Making A Difference, One Degree at a Time
Florida Tech has come a long way since its founding in 1958. It began when six women took their seats in a rented junior high classroom. They refused to be “girls in a man’s world.” They wanted to make a difference.
Sixty-five years later, female Panthers continue to pursue careers in science, engineering, business, the humanities and social sciences. Florida Tech’s coeds have achieved much. Women like: Jeanne Flanagan ’79, earned her degree in biology and became a gold medalist in the 1984 Olympics; Wadad Dubbelday ’81 earned her degree in physics and became a scientist at the U.S. Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center; Catharina Haynes ’83 earned a B.S. in psychology and became a federal judge; Gen. Ann Dunwoody ’87 M.S. earned her master’s in logistics management and became the first female four-star general; Elizabeth Webbe-Lunny ’93 earned her B.A. in humanities and became a publisher and style icon; Sunita Williams ’95 M.S. is NASA astronaut who earned her master’s in engineering management.
The list of achievements continues to grow. What has remained constant is the desire of Florida Tech’s women to shape their own destinies. This is a university where women have made a tradition of shattering glass ceilings.
Note: As of Aug. 1, 2023, women make up 32.5% of the incoming first-year class, according to Mike Perry, Florida Tech director of admissions.
