The Day IBM Let Married Women Work

The Day IBM Let Married Women Work


It seems utterly and incredibly sexist today, but 60 years ago many companies required female employees to resign when they married. This internal memo marks the day that IBM decided that was a stupid idea.

Dated January 10, 1951, the message describes a “temporary modification” on IBM’s personnel policy — one that finally allowed its female employees to continue working once they were married. From the memo:

Effective immediately and until further notice:

1. A female employee will not be required to resign from the company upon marriage

2. The Company will consider for employment a married female.

You can see the full memo by clicking on the image below. While it would be easy to poke fun at IBM for the existence of the memo, the truth is that it was a widespread problem back in the early ’50s. Thank goodness that didn’t last.


[Sociological Images via The Atlantic]


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

It’s the most popular NBN speed in Australia for a reason. Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Gizmodo, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.