The uniforms worn by flight attendants have come a long way since the rise of air travel in the 1950s. During those early days, some airlines forbade wearing glasses and required their female fight attendants to be single and weigh under 135 pounds.
While some of the most stringent and sexist requirements were soon phased out, flight attendant uniforms have been subject to criticism over double standards for male and female employees throughout the decades.
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Throughout 2022 and 2023, female flight attendants at several European airlines have been pushing back against being made to wear heels while their male counterparts get more practical footwear.
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Spanish Court Rules Full-Face Makeup And 3-Inch Heels an 'Undue Burden'
The issue eventually made it to a Spanish court which, as first reported by local newspaper El Periódico, sided with the union representing the flight attendants on the low-cost Barcelona-based airline Vueling earlier this spring.
The local Catalan court ordered the airline owned by International Airlines Group (BABWF) to pay 30,000 euros ($32,919) for placing an "undue burden" on its female flight attendants with the requirement that they wear a full face of makeup and heels between one to three inches.
Male counterparts, in turn, were only required to have a "clean and neat appearance."
The court further ordered the airline to change its uniform requirements to be "less burdensome and more balanced" while also not "affecting fundamental rights" related to comfort and choice of dress.
In response, Vueling said that it has already begun the process of reworking its uniforms.
"The company has been reviewing its style guide and has been working on an inclusive image for more than a year," the airline said in a press statement translated from Spanish. "[...] The company's aim with the dress code is to always ensure comfort and safety in all environments. In fact, the style guide was drafted with the cooperation of the crew member representatives."
Airlines Try (Not Always Successfully) To Be More Inclusive
The push to make uniform requirements more inclusive and consistent across the sexes has been taking place for a number of years.
While most airlines still have requirements in terms of maintaining a neat personal appearance that are significantly more strict than most other industries, many airlines have been listening to feedback and making changes that generally veer toward practicability and comfort.
In November 2022, Virgin Atlantic (SPCE) changed its policy to allow flight attendants to choose, irrespective of their gender, whether to wear a skirt or pantsuit on the job. Prior to the outbreak of the war, Ukrainian airline SkyUp had ditched its former flight attendant uniform of pencil skirts and high heels for a loose-fitting orange pantsuit and Nike (NKE) sneakers.
Double standards are also far from the only uniform-related concern raised by airline workers over the years. In 2020, Delta (DAL) flight attendants filed a class-action lawsuit against the Lands End (LE) clothing company supplying the uniforms used by many major airlines over "chemicals and heavy metals far in excess of industry-accepted safe levels for garments."
A Wisconsin court later threw out the case after finding that the flight attendants failed to show sufficient evidence that their allergic reactions were caused by what they wore at work.
