Flashback week, or something.

So, as I tool through my old diary and bring over old entries (so I don't have to maintain the old one to keep all that damn history!), I got the second "vintage" newspaper article showcasing anti-feminist crap of the week. (The first is recounted here.)

This one talks about hiring women for work in transit companies during the '40s, and is slightly less patronizing than the first, which makes sense since it's verifiably an actual article and not maybe-possibly-couldbe. But still:

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 also reveals whether the employee-to-be has any female weaknesses which would make her mentally or physically unfit for the job. Transit companies that follow this practice report a surprising number of women turned down for nervous disorders.

and

Women are inclined to be nervous and they're happier with change.

and

A girl has more confidence and consequently is more efficient if she can keep
her hair tidied, apply fresh lipstick and wash her hands several times a day.

This last one is probably the one I'm most bitter about. For the most part, I think there are way fewer "nervous disorders" tied to "female weaknesses" these days...but between Madison Avenue and Hollywood, I suspect the tidy hair and lipstick bits are all too true to this day.

There were a couple that amused the hell out of me, though.

Be reasonably considerate about using strong language around women.

and

...general experience indicates that "husky" girls - those who are just a little on the heavy side - are likely to be more even-tempered and efficient than their underweight sisters.

The first is hilarious, since I am at least as big a pottymouth as most dudes I've met.

As for the second one, it just cracks me up because it's so in contrast to the way fat girls are viewed in stereotype these days; I feel like it used to be that fatties were, you know, "jolly," while I think it's shifted over the years so that now fat people - especially women - are viewed as negative and bitchy and bitter. Pretty sad when fat women used to be preferred, back when women were forced to have a pelvic before they could be hired, and wouldn't even be hired if they had any "female weaknesses."

Hey, now that I think about it, maybe that's not so funny.