The History of Cabin Attendants Hanging Up in the Air and Gendered Construction of the Profession

This study is carried out in order to identify the characteristics of the aviation industry, a predominantly female sector- upon cabin attendants’ lives. The study also aims to shed light on how cabin attendants associated with various beauty myths react to such restricted body politics and what kind of impacts emotional labour burden and sexist policies have on women’s lives. The profession can be described as an invisible occupation. The literature that the representation of women is abundant but their own discourse almost never takes place. The study aimed at the acquisition of their own stories and discourses, the women who are currently working in airline companies in Turkey or who have been worked as a cabinattendant. Thispaper is a preliminary attempt to include cabin attendants’ own narrations and expressions in the literature concerning cabin attendants who are thought to hold an invisible position that abounds in female representation without their own voices. For this purpose, in-depth interviewing with women who are still working or have worked for once as a cabinattendant in airline companies in Turkey is conducted. The work focuses on women cabin crews and explores how their gendered subjectivities are established and negotiated in this limited context