The women were often trained nurses and there were also strict rules as to their age, height and weight.
In the 1920s and into the early 1930s, the role of flight attendant was one mostly reserved for men, who were usually referred to as "cabin boys". This was soon flipped on its head, though. The first female flight attendant, a nurse named Ellen Church, was employed in 1930 and by the middle of the decade most of these jobs went to women. The women were often trained nurses and there were also strict rules as to their age, height and weight. Before this change, this photo shows an all-male team of air stewards posing before an Eastern Air Lines plane in the early 1930s.