THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT
Barbara “Dusty” Roads
April 9, 1928 – November 21, 2023
“We were all part of the women’s movement…I think each generation takes for granted the gifts that have been given by the previous generation.”
Labor activist and American Airlines flight attendant. Fought against American Airlines’ mandatory retirement age for women. Lobbied members of Congress on flights to Washington, DC, and staged press conferences to see if reporters could pick out the 32-year-old flight attendants in a lineup. Co-founded the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, 1977 which now represents over 26,000 people.
Photo. Barbara “Dusty” Roads, famed activist, picketing American Airlines. (Makers, 2012)
More About Dusty:
- In Memoriam: Dusty Roads
- Dusty Roads: How the Women’s Movement Took Flight, January 2000, by Elaine Rock
- Gloria Steinem, honors Barbara “Dusty” Roads, Flight Attendant & Union Leader, who fought against the airline industry’s sexist working conditions and regulations. 2019
- Interview with Barbara “Dusty” Roads, PBS
- Fly With Me; Meet The Women Who Changed The World While Flying It, February 2024
- Fly With Me; Documentary Explores the Lives of the Pioneering Women Flight Attendants Who Transformed the World While Flying It
- Dusty Roads was honored by the Veteran Feminists of America Salute to ERA Activists, Sewall-Belmont House, Washington, DC, May 6, 1999
- Wikipedia page
- Cited in Barbara Love’s book, Feminists Who Changed America 1963-1975, page 385