Proposal
#1: Female Flight Attendants in the mid 20th Century
The employment opportunities open to
women in the 20th century were obviously limited. As the commercial
airline industry expanded, airlines looked to young women to make the flying
experience luxurious and attractive for clients. As a stewardess, women not
only had to look the part of the “ideal” woman but had to act like it too:
comforting, cook all meals in the air, speaking multiple languages, etc. Yet,
young women flocked to major airlines, such as Pan Am, yearning to join the
‘ships in the sky.’ The dream of becoming a flight attendant seduced thousands
of young women who yearned to travel and for a glamorous lifestyle. I want to
investigate the irony between the perception of the “new” woman as adventurous
and worldy (as represented by flight stewardesses) and the strict, traditional
female standards these women were held to. I want to explore if the promised
glamour and freedom of becoming a stewardess was a reality or a fiction.
Sources:
-Femininity
in Flight: A History of Flight Attendants by Kathleen M. Barry (published
2007)
-stewardess advertisements (such as: http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/books/2013/04/airline_stewardesses_through_history_photos.html)
-The
Jet Sex: Airline Stewardesses and the Making of an American Icon by
Victoria Vantoch
Wish List:
-diary/journal entries of stewardesses
pertaining to both their experience as well as why they wanted to join
-any potential CIA papers about using
stewardesses for CIA purposes (heard some theories about this and I think it
would be really cool to look into)
-actual Pan Am (or other airline)
regulations about a female stewardesses look, height requirement, weight
requirement, etc.
-any materials that could give me statistic on the number of female stewardesses in this time period
Proposal
#2: Jewish Miners in Gold Rush Era California
My family first came to California in
1850 from Europe to try and strike it rich in the golden hills of California as
well as escape the pogroms in Eastern Europe. In addition to facing the
hardships of the mining communities, my family members had the additional
challenge of being Jewish. While not persecuted as greatly as African American
or Chinese miners, Jewish miners were typically not allowed to mine and thus
forced to run town stores instead. I want to explore the presence and role of
Jews in Gold Rush California. Additionally, I would like to investigate the
relationship between the promise of the west and the idea that anyone can
strike it rich with the first hand accounts I find. I would also like to look into the relationship (if any) between Jewish miners and other minority miners (such as African American miners, Chinese miners, etc.)
Sources:
-Birth
of a Community: Jews and the Gold Rush (documentary) directed by Bill
Chayes (1994)
-my family accounts of their experience
(my great grandfather wrote a book for the family about the family history)
-Levi
Strauss & Co. by Lynn Downey (2007)
Wish List:
-diaries or journals of Jewish miners
-any legislation or mining village rules
pertaining to Jewish miners
-census materials about the number of
miners being Jewish
I like your topics. And your sources are good as well.
ReplyDeleteRachel, I think both of these are great. Obviously the second has a regional tie to Stanford which could make it particularly interesting and relevant but I'm particularly partial to the first one. Super interesting is that there was a court (I think Supreme) decision in which the court addressed whether gender was a legitimate characteristic for hiring discrimination for the job of flight attending. That court decision revealed a lot about PanAm's justification for hiring exclusively women and the gendered characterization of the job itself. Your idea sounds great!
ReplyDeleteOK, both of these topics are fantastic and I am really torn about which one I like more. Obviously, the issue of Jewish miners is very underrepresented in history and there is sure to be a lot of great sources on that. On the other hand, female flight attendants is also super intriguing -- although I wonder what a good narrowing question would be? Like are you thinking about how women reconciled traditional female roles with this new female job or was the desire for women to become flight attendants a manifestation of their desire to change female roles? (Might take a lot of diary entries to figure that one out, haha!)
ReplyDeleteI would say maybe follow the sources? It seems like there would be a lot of good ones for the gold rush in the area, and you could always take a weekend trip to Sutter's Fort!
Rachel, I love how your topics are so different from one another but that you were able to articulate a compelling reason for your interest in both. I think that the Jewish miners questions is SO unique, whereas the flight attendant question is definitely something I've heard a fair amount before. That isn't to say that you should not do the flight attendant topic, but I just think you would have to be a bit more deliberate about finding a new angle. Also, I think the fact that your family was involved in the Gold Rush would be a really interesting dimension of the paper!
ReplyDelete