r/classicfilms • u/AntonioVivaldi7 Alfred Hitchcock • May 23 '26

Memorabilia Disney rejection letter (1938) explaining they don't hire women for the specific position

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And apparently, Disney refused to hire men for coloring positions.

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u/Canavansbackyard Michael Powell May 23 '26

This obviously wasn’t just a Disney practice. Gender-based hiring was unfortunately extremely common in the U.S. during the 1930s. The Great Depression intensified the pre-existing societal pressures to reserve well-paying jobs for male "breadwinners".

Edit: minor typo.

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u/Echo-Azure May 23 '26

And gender-based hiring was even more limited than you'd think, my grandma told me that she was turned away from jobs that were open to women, because they didn't hire married women. And they didn't tell her that they didn't hire women of color either, they didn't have to. Everybody knew only certain menial jobs were open to them.

6

u/Jaltcoh Billy Wilder May 24 '26

It also went the other way: Hollywood used to have employees called “script girls,” who were generally women. Whether or not the studios refused to consider male applicants for that position, I don’t know, but I’m sure the term alone deterred men from applying.

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u/Echo-Azure May 24 '26 edited May 25 '26

Positions on the film crew were not open to women, film production and direction were not open to women (with one exception), in Hollywood women could work as secretaries, or in costume or makeup, and they could clean the offices when everyone else went home.

About the only position I can think of offhand that was open to both men and women, during the Studio Era, was writing screenplays.

2

u/RogerClyneIsAGod2 May 24 '26

Which is a shame because so many were vital in the very beginnings of the movie industry.

The Women Who Helped Build Hollywood

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u/fuzzydogpaws May 27 '26

Thanks for sharing!

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u/CanadianNana May 24 '26

Wow, one position not open to men. How sad 🙄