COFFEE, TEA OR ME? /

The changing image of New Zealand’s air hostesses over the years is chronicled in Brita McVeigh’s documentary. “It was written in the personnel manual that a hostess was required to visit the bathroom to check her appearance every ten minutes. Pre-1974, women employed by the airline were required to leave the industry if they married, became pregnant, or had the audacity to pass their 35th birthday. Airlines in fact behaved like bored husbands, trading in the loyal older woman for the younger, perkier model. And then I discovered a small book, written in 1987, called ‘Human Rights Commission vs. Air New Zealand Ltd.: A Story of Sex Discrimination’. It told the story of 17 hostesses, who, after 13 years of struggling for equal rights to promotion, pay and superannuation and, for some, years of sustained sexual harassment in the workplace, were seeking two million dollars in discriminatory claims against their employer.”

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