Comments on: A List of Reasons Not to Hire Women

By: IBM Decides to Let Women Work after Marriage (1951) » Sociological Images

IBM Decides to Let Women Work after Marriage (1951) » Sociological Images — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 14:17:10 +0000

[...] see: reasons not to hire women and if you don’t fire women, men have to be bums. var object = SHARETHIS.addEntry({ [...]

By: Alyssa

Alyssa — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:20:54 +0000

Agreed. I’ve heard v and vi used as reasons that women should stay at home when they have kids. I’ve heard ii, iii, iv, vii, viii, and ix used in arguments for why men should be promoted over women, why they should be paid more for the same job, and against affirmative action.

These arguments are still around- just usually not in written form.

By: Alyssa

Alyssa — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:13:27 +0000

Yes, but don’t you see if we mention how those people over there are worse, then we are off the hook.
mmmm that’s good racism sprinkled on my misogyny.

By: Liyana T

Liyana T — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 13:14:42 +0000

I object to all the suggestions and most of all on the part about the attitude of Islam against women. LOL, as far as I’m concerned Muslim women has become presidents and prime ministers more often than none Muslim countries. It’s popular opinion that women are not given education in Islam when more often than not Muslim women in my community although with certain ideas attached to becoming a homemaker is more important (just like in the West) they’re encouraged to work and are often highly praised when they succeed, not much maternity leave I’m afraid but women are hardly laid off if pregnant where I come from – infact almost never, in Brunei that is lol.

By: The Amazing Kim

The Amazing Kim — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 02:19:44 +0000

Ja, I remember some radio doco about Ruby Payne-Scott, the Australian physicist who practically invented radio astronomy. She was unbelievably talented, and one of the best physicists in the world, but had the misfortune of falling in love. The couple kept the marriage secret so Ruby could keep working, but the CSIRO found out after a couple of years, and fired her without pension.

By: Harpraxis

Harpraxis — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 01:30:47 +0000

On that last paragraph in the letter, where it’s stated that the average woman marries within five years – in the Australian federal public service, it was compulsory for women to resign when they got married. This policy only ended in 1966!

There’s a bit about this and women’s work in Australia here, including some video:
http://australianscreen.com.au/titles/love-or-money/clip3/

By: Gwen

Gwen — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 23:06:40 +0000

OMG, if you do, make 2 and I’ll buy one!

By: Tlönista

Tlönista — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 23:05:16 +0000

A spinster lady can, and very often does, turn into something of a battleaxe with the passing years.

I want to cross stitch this and hang it on my wall to give me something to aspire to.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:47:59 +0000

I love that the world “battleaxe” is literally in a government document. Yeesh.

By: h1n1

h1n1 — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:06:15 +0000

Best part.. probably had a women type this while taking dictation. lol “Betty take a Note! To: The Director. Title: Women Trade Commissioners. Queston Mark.”

Oh the humiliation women endure.

By: Nique

Nique — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:42:00 +0000

On my parents’ marriage certificate, my mother’s occupation is “spinster”. I wonder if they would’ve put “crazy cat lady” if she owned cats?

By: Birdseed

Birdseed — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:03:38 +0000

Have we actually progressed much, though? I would say many of these would still be used as justification for discrimination against women, although not openly. It just seems to me the sexists were franker then, and even readily recognised (in a twisted way of course) stuff like the closed old-boys network and the double workload of a career woman.

By: larry c wilson

larry c wilson — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:53:36 +0000

I’d agree that the mellowing age for men is around 65…speaking as a man two weeks from 67

By: Duran2

Duran2 — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:27:48 +0000

Spinsters are not aggressively logical (think Soviets), they are aggressively histrionic (think Mussolini). At least, that was the prevailing wisdom.

By: Duran2

Duran2 — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:26:40 +0000

Wow, this is a particularly cringe-worthy post! It’s amazing the progress we’ve made in 40 years.

The one point he made that was actually useful was that women are less likely to be able to develop business relationships with a man and extract information. IF the prevailing culture is that women don’t have respect in the business world, THEN hiring a man does make more sense. It’s the same principle as hiring locals abroad. If you’re expanding your company into Brazil, you want to go hire a bunch of Brazilians to navigate the company’s legal system and cultural mores. It doesn’t make it right, but it’s just the pragmatic business thing to do.

But that single good point shouldn’t detract from the overall eye-goggling cringe-inducing ridiculousness of this.