'The adventures that these women had around the world really bonded them.' Julia Cooke tweet this They have a strong alumni network, and they host these conferences or conventions in different places around the world once a year, so I started going to them. The adventures that these women had around the world really bonded them, so they stay in good touch.

JULIA COOKE: I connected with them via the organization called World Wings International, for the most part. SEVEN DAYS: I like how you wove historical information with profiles of real-life women who worked for Pan Am. Cooke, 37, spoke with Seven Days about the sociocultural shifts of the late 1960s, getting to know her subjects and growing up in the 'Pan Am family.' A journalist and travel writer, Cooke highlights Pan Am stewardesses and their work in her book Come Fly the World: The Jet-Age Story of the Women of Pan Am, published on March 2.Ĭombining facts about world history and the airline industry with narratives of real-life women, Cooke dispels misconceptions (all stewardesses were not, in fact, simply party girls on the hunt for husbands) and emphasizes the roles Pan Am stewardesses, in particular, played in the fight for equal employment rights. Woodstock author Julia Cooke has a personal connection to their story: Her father was an attorney at Pan Am until 1992. It also came with considerable danger, as planes flew in and out of war zones, not to mention blatantly sexist regulations regarding female employees' age, appearance and marital status. The coveted job with the exclusively international American airline afforded women financial independence and freedom to travel. While this certainly was part of the job, the stewardesses working for Pan American World Airways were, in fact, breaking ground for other women flight attendants of the future. What image comes to mind when you think of an airline stewardess from the 1960s or '70s? Maybe it's a conventionally beautiful woman in a trim uniform, smiling as she serves coffee to men in suits.

Come fly the world by julia cooke