For anyone wondering why many older and baby boomer women are poor, less likely to have sufficient superannuation, lower paid jobs, and have less money than their male counterparts take a look at this excellent example of 20th century misogyny and blatant discrimination. Alan Jones and Grahame Morris would be proud.
This is a list of reasons why women should not be employed as trade commissioners in 1963, at about the time the first of the baby boomers was entering the workforce.
I particularly liked the reference to single women turning into battleaxe spinsters. I am not surprised they turned into battleaxes if they had to deal with dreadful old men like this at work every day. It is a wonder they didn’t become mass murderers.
Also that young attractive women might be useful, but not especially good as they got older, and could be a problem once they were no longer young and attractive.
Furthermore, most men’s clubs don’t allow women so this would be a problem for doing business. Of course it would. Didn’t occur to them to change the rules to let women in. Might upset the “chaps”.
Women could not possibly stand the strains and stresses of the job, and of course she would not have anyone to do all the entertaining and home management and would have to do it on top of her job. She would not have a wife to do all this, as the men do.
Finally these women would be taking away jobs from men, which would be a terrible thing.
http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/snapshots/find-of-the-month/2005-mar-1.aspx
