Steward

A steward (if male) or stewardess (if female) is a person employed in attending to the safety and comfort of passengers aboard a ship.

Airline stewardesses

In the 1930s, airlines began calling their employees with similar duties stewardesses (nearly all were female). During the 1970s the gender-neutral term flight attendant was adopted. Persons who learned the term before that often still call flight attendants "stewardesses".