To everything there is a season...
May. 23rd, 2012 08:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
susandennisIn 1973, I was a newspaper reporter and I decided that I'd rather make more money. I looked around for what I could do, without going back to school, that would pay me buckets o' cash. I cudda been a hooker - I had read The Happy Hooker and, honestly, she made it seem rather interesting and lucrative but the timing wasn't good. My parents were still very much alive.
Next up - considering the skills I had at the time - was sales. So I launched a campaign. I made a list of all the products and companies that made or did stuff I liked. At the library there was a giant book called the Thomas Registry. In it you could look up any company and get the mailing address and name of the CEO.
I mailed letters and resumes to about 60 CEOs. In the early 70's women in sales was not even close to common. Women who were willing to relocate and travel were all stewardesses. And the federal government was beginning to put the squeeze on public companies to hire women and blacks in positions that had career tracks.
So, I got lots of offers for expenses paid trips for interviews. It was great fun. I went all over the place and encountered white men who were desperate to find just one woman and one black so they could get back to the regular work at hand.
I quickly figured that companies who offered to train me needed to be at the top of the list. That moved IBM and Xerox right up there. I thought copiers were more fun than typewriters so I gave Xerox the first shot.
They had a personality test they required of all applicants. I was fine with that and gamely showed up with my #2 pencil. The test was clearly one that would be 'graded' by a computer and it was obvious that that computer expected the test takes to be of the male persuasion.
Many of the questions were things like "How much would you play for a business suit?" (Trust me, there was no such thing as a business suit for women in 1973.) But, when I got to the question "Would your wife be willing to relocate?", I was done. I told the test proctor thanks, but no thanks. And I wrote a nice letter to the CEO explaining why they were not going to get a chance at their best candidate.
(I took that test in NY. If I were taking it today, neither of those questions would seem that odd and the latter would make Xerox look progressive.)
I went to work for IBM. They put me in the Greenville, S.C. branch - that branch's first female in sales. The guy they hired just before me was their first black.
Today, the CEO of IBM is female. And, I heard on NPR this morning, that Xreox's new CEO is female *and* black!
Amazing. Really. And pretty cool.
Next up - considering the skills I had at the time - was sales. So I launched a campaign. I made a list of all the products and companies that made or did stuff I liked. At the library there was a giant book called the Thomas Registry. In it you could look up any company and get the mailing address and name of the CEO.
I mailed letters and resumes to about 60 CEOs. In the early 70's women in sales was not even close to common. Women who were willing to relocate and travel were all stewardesses. And the federal government was beginning to put the squeeze on public companies to hire women and blacks in positions that had career tracks.
So, I got lots of offers for expenses paid trips for interviews. It was great fun. I went all over the place and encountered white men who were desperate to find just one woman and one black so they could get back to the regular work at hand.
I quickly figured that companies who offered to train me needed to be at the top of the list. That moved IBM and Xerox right up there. I thought copiers were more fun than typewriters so I gave Xerox the first shot.
They had a personality test they required of all applicants. I was fine with that and gamely showed up with my #2 pencil. The test was clearly one that would be 'graded' by a computer and it was obvious that that computer expected the test takes to be of the male persuasion.
Many of the questions were things like "How much would you play for a business suit?" (Trust me, there was no such thing as a business suit for women in 1973.) But, when I got to the question "Would your wife be willing to relocate?", I was done. I told the test proctor thanks, but no thanks. And I wrote a nice letter to the CEO explaining why they were not going to get a chance at their best candidate.
(I took that test in NY. If I were taking it today, neither of those questions would seem that odd and the latter would make Xerox look progressive.)
I went to work for IBM. They put me in the Greenville, S.C. branch - that branch's first female in sales. The guy they hired just before me was their first black.
Today, the CEO of IBM is female. And, I heard on NPR this morning, that Xreox's new CEO is female *and* black!
Amazing. Really. And pretty cool.