Vintage memo demonstrates the obstacles facing female attorneys in 1950’s America

This original 1950’s era legal memo lays out one firm’s policy for the interviewing of “lady lawyers”.

Under the heading “Lady Lawyers,” this 1950’s era legal memo lays out one firm’s official policy with regard to interviewing female attorneys as follows:

The firm desires to be open in its preference for male applicants…the firm does not rate a girl applicant on equal terms with the men applicants.

Not wishing to dissuade women nor “waste their valuable time,” the memo encourages interviewers to be upfront with the firm’s chauvinist preferences — revealing, if nothing else, that at least 50’s era Big Business was honest with itself about the presence of a Glass Ceiling.

The same cannot be said uniformly at present.
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