THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT

Mary Pat Laffey

“Ruth Bader Ginsburg said I was very courageous.”

Interviewed by Judy Waxman, Oral Historian, July 2025

MPL:  I am Mary Patricia Laffey Inman, born July 25, 1937, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

JW:  Tell us a little about your childhood. What sort of might have got you thinking about women’s issues?

MPL:   I am from an Irish Catholic family.  We discussed politics, current events, issues and social justice. My mother was the eldest of nine, our grandparents lived with us. Therefore, my mother’s family considered our home, their home. My father would say, every family decision was discussed at our kitchen table.

JW:  How many in your family?

MPL:  Father, mother & five children.

JW: So how did you get involved in the women’s movement?

MPL:  I became a flight Stewardess in 1958. I attended the union meetings. Being from Pittsburgh, I was familiar with unions. I listened to the older Stewardesses talk about the inequality and parity regarding salaries and working conditions.  Male Pursers and Flight Service Attendants controlled the union.  They viewed their employment on a long-term basis. Whereas Stewardesses had to quit/forced to retire when they married or reached age 32.

JW: You got involved in the union, I assume.

MPL:  Yes, I was on every committee at one time or another throughout my career, safety, scheduling and negotiating committees.  We were not compensated for serving on these committees.  We flew a full schedule and did this work on our days off.

JW:  I’ll bet. And tell me about what kind of activism you got involved in then.

MPL:  The 1964 the Civil Rights Bill was signed which included GENDER.  I became the Master Executive Chairman for Northwest Airlines serving on the negotiating committee.  (No one else wanted the job because it required extra work.)  We signed a non-discriminatory contract in 1967.  (the first in the Airline Industry).  Which included bringing back (rehiring) stewardesses who were fired because they were 32, fired because they married, had weight issues, or they wore eyeglasses.  Male Pursers and Flight Service Attendants were not subject to these unfair conditions.  Also, STEWARDESSES WERE NOW ALLOWED TO BID THE PURSER POSTION.

JW:  And was that hard to do?

MPL:  Yes, it was very difficult because in the 1967 contract negotiations we had to compromise. In order for Northwest to agree to the non-discrimination clause, we had to accept the provision allowing Northwest to hire off shore, Asian language speaking stewardesses to be based in Seattle displacing one American Flight Attendant on each international flight in and out of Japan.  Therefore, American stewardesses were denied International Pay, which meant a cut in pay for those American stewardesses.

JW:  I didn’t quite follow this. You had to accept Asian women; I’m assuming at that point.

MPL:  Yes, to get the nondiscrimination clause we had to compromise.   Displacing one American Stewardess denying her International Pay

JW:  And they got paid less than Americans.

MPL:  They were paid beginning Stewardess salary.  They would displace an American Stewardess.  If an American Stewardess could not hold international flying, she would have to bid domestic trips, denying her the international pay. The Seattle based Stewardesses were not happy.  However, the disparity didn’t last long due to the Jumbo Jets which required 8 or 10 Stewardesses on each flight to Asia.

When we signed the contract, we did not have the Jumbos Jets. We had three or four flight attendants on each international flight to Japan. When the Jumbos Jets arrived, we had nine to eight to eleven Stewardesses.  It was no longer an issue. But when we signed the contract, it was a big issue.

JW:  So international got more pay than domestic, is that what you’re saying?

MPL:  Yes.

JW:  I see. So, once you had Jumbos, was the pay the same or international still paid more?

MPL:  Yes. If you flew international you were paid more. I believe it was at least $60 more plus per diem.

JW:  Were there other issues that came along?

MPL:  Once we signed the Non-Discriminatory contract, the other airlines in the industry eventually followed allowing Stewardesses to be married and continue to fly after age 32 or in the case of TWA 35.

We will now get into why I had to file a lawsuit. In the 1967 contract stated that Stewardesses could bid for the Purser position. The Purser position started out on the shipping lines when the Purser paid for the fuel and commissary at each port of entry.  They did not have credit cards.

We had a Purser on our international flights to handle the paperwork. Each country wanted to know how many passengers were on board and what cargo was in the belly of the aircraft. (This is now done electronically.)  Other than that, the Purser had the same job as the Stewardesses, accommodating, serving passengers, et cetera.

1968 Northwest Airlines hired five men off the street to become Pursers. I, as the Master Executive Chairman, called the Director of Labor Relations, Homer Kenny, and said the contract requires you to put the Purser job up for bid. Which he did. The stewardesses were afraid to incur the wrath of the Pursers, which was an all-male bastion. I submitted my bid for the Purser position.

JW:  Why did you want that job?

MPL:  The Purser position paid more and you were in charge. Northwest Airlines was hiring young men off the street to be in charge. Stewardesses had seniority and the experience. The Northwest Manual stated when a man was on the airplane ‘he was always in charge.’ A man comes on the airplane with no experience; he is in charge of Stewardesses with years of experience.

JW:  Oh, of course. So what happened? You applied and what happened?

MPL:  I submitted my Bid for the Purser position. It took Northwest eight months to come up with a testing procedure. I took the test, I scored higher than the men, therefore they could not deny me the job. I became a Purser.

Past practice was when a male Flight Steward Attendants became Purser, they slotted into their regular date of hire seniority and were immediately put onto the Purser pay scale.

Northwest Airlines put me at the bottom of the Purser seniority list and red circled my pay. I was making top stewardess pay at that time. Purser pay scale would be years before it would catch up with my top stewardess pay. Only then would I get a raise. I put up with this hoping the pay and seniority would be remedied in the next contract. In the interim several Stewardesses put in their bid for the Purser position.

JW:  Oh, they didn’t do well on the test, or they were just turned down.

MPl:  Just turned down for various and a sundry excuse for not allowing them to become Pursers.

JW:  So you realize you’re not going to get a raise for many, many years and then what happens?

MPL:  The next contract negotiation – the Union (now dominated my men) signed another contract in 1969 with no change for stewardesses progressing to Purser position. (I am the only female Purser) I contacted the lawyer who represented us our union, and he gave me the name of Michael Gottesman in Washington D.C. who is the genius of Labor Law.  I was living in Washington DC at that time. I made an appointment.  He determined we had an Equal Pay case and a Title VII Civil Rights Case.  We filed a class action suit in 1970.

JW:  And how did that go?

MPL:  Mary P. Laffey, et. Al vs Northwest Airlines In took 15 years to be resolved.   We had an affirmative decision in our favor – in the US Federal District Court and then the Federal District Court of Appeals where Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote the decision. That court included Robert Bork and Ken Starr both conservative judges who assented in our case. Northwest Airlines Inc took the Mary P Laffey, et. al. vs Northwest Airlines Inc it to the Supreme Court twice which they declined to hear.  In 1985 Northwest finally ran out of appeals.  We finally won.

JW:  Tell me the result.

MPL:  It was a landmark decision. The cost to Northwest Airlines Inc was about $63 million. The settlement was predicated on the difference in a double room and a single room and the salary that a stewardess would have had if she had been a Purser. One person received $50,000. I received less than everybody else because I was actually THE PURSER, even though I was not on the Purser pay scale They calculated it and so I received less than everybody else. The Stewardesses took up a collection for me.

JW:  So after the suit was won, did your salary go up?

MPL:  Soon after Northwest Airlines Inc lost.  Northwest eliminated the Purser position. Northwest changed the name of the position to Lead Flight Attendant -i.e. when a Flight Attendant checked in for a flight; this position was available in seniority order. if you were the most senior Flight Attendant you could be the Lead Flight Attendant. The Lead Flight Attendant received more money.

After several years, Northwest went back to the Purser position.

Northwest filed bankruptcy.  Northwest was taken over by a group who bought/controlled 51% of our stock.  They took Northwest Airlines private. Northwest did not have debt.  All of Northwest Airline’s assets were sold. (Northwest owned all their airplanes, most other airlines leased their airplanes.)  Northwest airplanes were sold, then leased back to NWA, they sold property in central Tokyo, which was worth millions.  Northwest went Public again, was (put back on the stock market).  They filed bankruptcy, took off with millions of dollars and sold to Delta Airlines.

JW:  And Delta complied with all the rules that got made?

MPL:  Yes, Delta complied with the rules.  The Flight Attendants are not unionized on Delta.  The pilots are unionized.

JW:  Did you ever get involved with the pilots and trying to get women to be pilots, anything like that?

MPL:  No, I wasn’t involved. But female pilots were being hired by the airlines in the 70s. They were scrutinized. Many had been military trained.

JW:  And then since you retired, were you involved in any other activist work?

MPL:  Occasionally I am asked to counsel Flight Attendants.

Seattle is located in an area prone to earthquakes. Our area is known as Liqiu-faction zone, soil is like gel, stemming from the glacial era.  I am on the Emergency Preparedness Committee. I have a GMRS radio. On Mondays, I check in at 8pm. (repeaters are located around the city). It’s an exercise in preparation for a possible earthquake or any disruptive event.

JW:  What would you say about all that activity during those years, 1967. What would you say about how they affected you?

MPL:  GENDER in the Civil Rights Bill was the key. It was gratifying knowing that this decision helped liberate women.  Women could now apply to for any position for which they were qualified.  It was like a renaissance for women. A friend thanked me; this decision allowed her to attend Medical School.

On the airline it was very difficult because the men were quite angry. One male said, “You’re taking away the shoes from my children”. There was some male hysteria. They didn’t look kindly on me, let’s put it that way.

JW:  But you got through it, obviously.

MPL:  Yes, I did. Thanks to our lawyer, Michael Gottesman. He was brilliant. We are all grateful.

JW:  Oh, well, that’s great. What other comments do you have about that experience?

MPL:  JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED. Many a day I wanted to say, ‘’I’m tired’… Northwest continued to appeal.  Stewardesses knew that they were going to receive the back pay. They were making plans for this money. I had to explain that Northwest had the legal right take this to the Supreme Court twice.

JW:  It was very brave of you.

MPL:  Ruth Bader Ginsburg said, I was very courageous.