When and why did Flight Attendant replace Stewardess?

Question

And when and why did Administrative Assistant replace Secretary? Or how did Sales Associate replace Pimply Faced Clerk?

Answer 1

1. "Flight Attendant"

To get the origins of this one, you need a know a little about flight attendant history. Originally, all flight attendants were male, and were called "stewards" - until the 1930s, when Ellen Church came along - she was a nurse, and the first female flight attendant. She coined the term "stewardess" for herself. Having stewardesses became a fierce trend among other airlines - notably, always nurses.

Then, in the 60s and 70s, probably due to customer reaction, airlines starting advertising their stewardesses as being attractive. Rules were sometimes imposed that stewardesses couldn't marry, had to be of a certain age and appearance, and so forth. This became a problem for job stability - women wanted to keep their careers, rather than being rudely fired when someone decided they looked too old or not pretty enough. So they formed unions to defy this.

In the 1970s, when the Women's Liberation movement was getting revved up, the unions - in line with their policy that someone's gender, age, appearance, etc - shouldn't effect their job since the job technically has nothing to do with either - came up with "flight attendant" since it didn't suggest one gender or another.

2. "Administrative Assistant"

The story is the same, but with different words. Being a secretary used to be (and we're talking 19th century here!) a glamourous job for men. It implied that these men were working with the "secret" (hence secretary) correspondence of bigshots. When the typewriter was invented and WWI was in swing, women began to enter the field. By the end of the war, being a secretary was associated with females. "Administrative assistant" came along to highlight the seriousness of the job (many people, like the case with stewardesses, thought that secretaries just sat around looking pretty) and the fact that men could do it too.

3. "Sales Associate"

This one's a little less documented. The general consensus seems to be a change in business dynamics - in the 80s and 90s when companies began touting "teamwork" and "being a team player". It was popular to see work as being a group-oriented thing, rather then the "me = low, boss = high" traditional standard. Presumably, "sales associate" says both "this isn't necessarily a crappy position" and "you have importance and sway in our company".

I'd like to clarify something about the first two women-oriented descriptions: when men had these jobs, the jobs were already considered noble and important. Once women took over, they were considered silly and non-serious. There's a pretty long history of this, and I think it's understandable: if, at the time, you're a man, and the manliest thing you can do is go to work, and suddenly women are doing it, the only way to make it okay is to say, "well, that's a silly girly job, not like our important, serious jobs". You can also turn the female job into a sexual one - note how female flight attendants and secretaries have been totally sexualized - to further emphasize how women having the job can make men manlier.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not man-hating here, it's just a social evolution - but I do understand why the terms were changed (all except sales associate, which I think is stupid - unless you business really *does* treat dopey high school people like "associates", in which case, the more power to you!). It's rough to want to work as much as anyone else, and then to be treated like the only thing you're good at is looking nice (and being fired if you aren't good at that!).

I'm saying this also because one of my jobs is being an administrative assistant, and it's a damn struggle navigating phone lines, dealing with hostile confused people in a way that makes your company look humane, keeping track in your head of a million things like appointments, where all the office people are at any given time, protocols, and so forth.

Hope this helps!

Yours,

A Yahoo Inquiry-Fulfilment Representative

Answer 2

Stewardess and Secretary were jobs that were exclusively staffed by women. Using those names was thought to stereotype jobs as "womens' jobs". Doing this had the effect of stereotyping women as people who would fill lower-level jobs; it excluded men from serving in those jobs as well.

Today, however, both men and women serve in those jobs and women have moved into other professions and into leadership positions. It made sense to change the names to "professionalize" the job, to better reflect what it is that people in those jobs do, and to do it in a way that is gender-neutral.

As for SAs (Sales Associate) replaced PFCs (Pimply Face Clerk). The shift occurred when older people took those jobs when changing careers or looking for interim work when laid off, and when retirees reentered the workplace for supplemental income.

With older people often filling these jobs, it's easier to say "Sales Associate" rather than "Bad Back Clerk" or "Arthritic Knee Clerk", "Replaced Heart Value Clerk", etc.

I hope this helps!

Answer 3

For gender equality. Not all flight attendants are female, so "stewardess" doesn't really work. Secretary is alive and well, however. I can't explain why Clerk went away, though.

Answer 4

Flight Attendant is gender neutral, unlike Stewardess/Steward.

Answer 5

GOD listens if you really want something or need it he will listen and answer your prayers God can do whatever he wants if you want a new car he can give it to you or not if you are out partying all the time and you dont go to church read the bible or pray and suddenly you ask God for a car he wont give it to you -that prayer has no effect if you are a sinner asking in prayer for forgiveness -that prayer has an effect and if you know God you follow his will for you and pray for that car he will give it to you in any way thats the beauty of God anything you want he will give it to you aslong as you are good with him and its nothing that you dont have the power to do remember God has a will and a plan for everyone prayer is a very important thing if we dont have it how will we communicate with God trust me prayer has a huge effect on us

Answer 6

When male attendants began working for airlines back in the 70"s.
Assistant and Associate is much "political correct".

Answer 7

I think w/in he last 20 yrs.

It's all about making things more PC.

It's silly - like 'Sanitation Engineer' instead of 'Garbage Man' - My Grandfather was a NYC garbage man for 20 years, had no problem with the title.

Answer 8

Well jim, 99% of the jobs with name changes are b/c they are chic-related jobs. typically when they start to want a promotion or something of that sort. they simply just change the name of their job and give them a 50 cent raise.

Same goes with under 30 yr's of age male's, when typically they don't realize they didn't get promoted...they just got a 5 cent raise and a new job title...

Answer 9

The same time that sanitation engineer replaced a garbage man

Answer 10

it was the 'policitcally correct 90's' when a fireman became a firefighter, etc. It was so a job title didn't indicate male or female.