Fasten your seatbelts: Female flight attendants
Two women discuss what it's like to be a woman on the frontline of the airline industry
What's it like to be a woman in the airline industry? Flying has undergone great changes in the past few decades, but Kim Chakanetsa asks how far perceptions of female cabin crew have really changed?
Heather Poole has worked for a major US airline for 20 years. She's also the author of the bestselling book, 'Cruising Attitude: Tales of Crashpads, Crew Drama and Crazy Passengers at 30,000 Feet.' Through social media and blogging she has exposed what's really going on in the minds of cabin crew.
Gretchen Ryan started working for South African Airways in 1983 and has just published a book about her experiences called 'Secrets of a Stewardess: Flying the World in the 1980s.' She describes a mad decade of travel during a time when flying was a luxury and to be an air hostess was seen by many as a glamourous life.
Presenter: Kim Chakanetsa.
L: Heather Poole (credit: Almeida)
R: Gretchen Ryan (credit: Callyn Jones)
Last on
Broadcasts
- Mon 24 Jun 201902:32GMTBBC World Service Online, West and Central Africa & Europe and the Middle East only
- Mon 24 Jun 201903:32GMTBBC World Service UK DAB/Freeview
- Mon 24 Jun 201904:32GMTBBC World Service Australasia, Americas and the Caribbean, South Asia & East Asia only
- Mon 24 Jun 201910:32GMTBBC World Service except West and Central Africa
- Mon 24 Jun 201917:32GMTBBC World Service Australasia
- Mon 24 Jun 201921:32GMTBBC World Service except Europe and the Middle East
- Mon 24 Jun 201922:32GMTBBC World Service Europe and the Middle East
The best of The Conversation
Podcast
![]()
The Conversation
Two women from different parts of the world share the stories of their lives



