Selectric / Misogyny

 

My first job out of university was to produce four business development newsletters targeting different regions. I was one of four writers and together we covered the US.

I did it by reading local papers for new businesses or construction and expansion of existing business. I used directories to glean more information.

It worked out in such a way that there was one week in four that there was a day where we didn't have to follow the schedule. Our boss closed the company and it didn't count as holiday time.

The only other male working there was the printer. The owner if he were alive today would probably be donating to Trump.  

We used an IBM Selectric typewriter with proportional spacing. It had taken me about a half hour to learn. Later when I was interviewing for another job the HR person said they were looking for a person who had three years experience with that make and model. I told him how long it had taken me to learn it, but he didn't believe me.

Although we never saw clients, we were expected to dress as if we did. It was 1967. In 1969 the writers got together to ask if we could wear slacks. Women were just beginning to have pant suits for business wear.

A lot of hemming and hawing went on before the owner said. yes.

Despite his rabid Republicanism and pro Vietnam stance, he did give me regular raises in $5 increments. I suspect it was because he had underpaid me when I started.

When Kent State happened and four kids were shot, he thought it served them right.

When I became pregnant, I was terrified he would fire me. He had done it to others and it was legal at that time. For some reason, he didn't. I did leave abruptly having left the office on a Friday, moved into our new home on Saturday, came down with the flu on Sunday and needed up in the hospital on Thursday. I came close to losing the baby and my own life and did not go back to the office. There was no maternity leave.

However, shortly after my daughter was born, my husband left. My position had not been filled. Even if he didn't approve of working mothers he saw my financial need and I went back to producing newsletters for a couple of years.

Years later he and I met him at a Direct Mail Association luncheon. At that time I was producing marketing materials for the National Fire Protection Association. We all took turns to introduce ourselves by standing. He stood, introduced himself. His wife was next to him but as she started to stand, he pushed her down and said, "This is my wife." No name given.

That job for the time was a good job. Most women became teachers, nurses or secretaries, all which are good professions unless a woman wanted to be something else like a doctor, engineer, executive... One company I worked with had the habit of promoting the female secretary of departing executives at about 25% of the salary. They were all college graduates, which some of those departing were not, but they weren't about to pass up an opportunity.

I worked for one man who said it was too bad I wasn't black, handicapped and Puerto Rican because than he could tick more boxes to show he was an equal opportunity employer.

When I got a job at an NGO in Geneva the Secretary General asked if I could handle a staff of five I told him in the States I had been indirectly responsible for 250. The did hire a woman to head up the engineering department, but wouldn't give her the office of the previous manager because all the male engineers might be jealous. She left two weeks into the job for another post paying double. 

One place I interviewed in Switzerland told me I had all the qualifications and experience but I was a woman and probably too old at 49.  Switzerland was not as advanced in equal opportunity as the U.S. and they still have a long way to go. The U.S. does as well.