If any of you are fans of “Mad Men” this won’t be quite as shocking to you, the way women were openly treated as second class citizens.
The letter basically tells Miss Mary V. Ford that only young men are allowed to join their training academy to do creative work at the Inking and Printing department.
In addition, the only jobs open to young women are tracing characters and inking them in as told. She would have to bring in samples of her tracing and inking work, but she shouldn’t get her hopes up because lots of girls apply to such few positions.
Many thanks to Single Mom, Rich Mom for sending me that link.
How times have changed!
We aren’t there yet, but we’re far better off in my opinion and I am VERY happy and lucky to be a woman living in this day and age.
Being a young woman in a male-dominated industry, you can come across a lot of discrimination against your age and gender, but nothing quite like that… at least, not to your face.
I think my generation and the younger generation growing up are becoming more sensitive and aware of gender discrimination.
It’s still prevalent of course but I daresay we’re at the start of a new era for the changing attitudes of working women and men.
I was thinking the other day that if we could change our behaviour as a society, it would have a structural impact without being dramatic.
For example, why do women only play women and men only play men in sports? In tennis, I daresay Serena Williams could give them a run for their money.
We seem to segregate everything in society by HIS and HERS, and acceptable domains of where they should be. Perhaps if we mixed these domains, we’d change our way of thinking.
Mad Men is the one show I love and hate
Did anyone watch the latest episode “Summer Man” where Peggy fires Joey for drawing a VERY inappropriate picture of Joan kneeling and proudly tells Joan, only to get verbally burned by her?
I’ve still yet to process it, but around the web people were saying that in the past, there was one kind of power: using sexuality to get what you want which is the core of Joan’s influence in the office and on men in general.
By firing Joey, Peggy was threatening that power by acting like a real manager — a new upcoming power that doesn’t use a woman’s sexuality but her actual managerial power instead — which directly usurps Joan’s influence because it makes her just a common secretary who can’t fire anyone the way Peggy can.
Don Draper is actually quite progressive in that respect. He was the one who told Peggy not to come running to him to tell on Joey, but to handle it herself.
What do you think? I’m still mulling it over.
In the mean time, read this 1970s children’s book for a little more fuel, also sent by Single Mom, Rich Mom.
A RANDOM SIDE NOTE: WATCH NIKITA!
Speaking of TV…. watch Nikita if you can. It’s on Season 1, Episode 2, but I am LOVING IT!
The star of the show is Maggie Q, who is not only beautiful but a very good actress who (in my opinion) gives Angelina Jolie a run for her money.
The basic idea is that she’s was an assassin for a government division called “Division”, and she “got out of it”, but is now being hunted down, so she decides to retaliate by hunting them down, one by one.
Very Dollhouse, but without the creepy, brainless sextoy zombies.
Just a girl trying to find a balance between being a Shopaholic and a Saver.
I cleared $60,000 in 18 months earning $65,000 gross/year.
Now I am self-employed, and you can read more about 
I question whether "the gap" has really closed. It's narrower, but it is definitely not closed. I don't care about stats, what I know is what I see in payroll reports and we're still behind.
I'm getting truly tired of this after all these years of the same sh!t, different pile.
Thanks for sharing these – i find the cartoon from the 70s almost more infuriating!
I work in a male dominated environment too – and I don't notice a lot of discrimination. I feel like my bigger problem is that I'm young rather than that I'm female, and I should outgrow that one!
I’ve worked at three ad agencies (currently at a design studio) and at each and every one ALL senior management positions have been men. There are still very few women doing creative in any of the agencies I’ve worked at. I have never worked with a female art director, but have worked with female copywriters (1) and several female production artists–essentially the modern-day version of the inker/painter described in the top letter. Things have changed on the surface, but deep down? Not really.
Very interesting post!!
That is funny you should mention that! I work with many (smaller) design companies, and the principal in almost every single one of them IS male, unless it is an all female office.
The male designers have plenty of women working for them, but the final decisions are male.
I do find it interesting that the female only offices seem to be the only ones that females can be the lead decision maker.
I saw that disney letter on Twitter the other day. Unbelievable!
I really enjoyed the few Mad Men episodes I saw. And then there was a REEEEALLY boring one at the end of the disc. I didn't get out anymore of the DVDs after that. Really, I only care about what happens to Don and his wife 🙂