This piece was written by L.H. Sanders and published in the July 1943 issue of Mass Transportation magazine. I wonder what a list like this would look like if it was published in 2007.

1. Pick young married women. They usually have more of a sense of responsibility than their unmarried sisters, they’re less likely to be flirtatious, they need the work or they wouldn’t be doing it, they still have the pep and interest to work hard and to deal with the public efficiently.

2. When you have to use older women, try to get ones who have worked outside the home at some time in their lives. Older women who have never contacted the public have a hard time adapting themselves and are inclined to be cantankerous and fussy. It’s always well to impress upon older women the importance of friendliness and courtesy.

3. General experience indicates that “husky” girls - those who are just a little on the heavy side - are more even tempered and efficient than their underweight sisters.

4. Retain a physician to give each woman you hire a special physical examination - one covering female conditions. This step not only protects the property against the possibilities of lawsuit, but reveals whether the employee-to-be has any female weaknesses which would make her mentally or physically unfit for the job.
[Read the Other 7 Rules]

I bet some people would read this and say “oh I can only imagine the lawsuits if that was practiced today.” I venture to say that it is practiced today on some level, you just can’t openly say it, or even worse- write it in a policy maual.

But it’s still there in the forms of glass ceilings, (lack of) women in politics, discrimination aganist pregnant women, discrimination aganist women who might become pregnant, unequal pay for equal work, (lack of) women CEO’s in big companies, etc.

I’ll admit that progress has been made. Women today have a lot of opportunities that were not previously available to them. But just because you’ve taken two steps it doesn’t mean that it’s ok to sit down on the bench when you have 40 more steps ahead of you.

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