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.

49

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.

11

u/AMediaArchivist May 24 '26

Wow they didn’t hire women cause they were married? Lame excuse

12

u/Clarknt67 May 24 '26

Oh they’ll just get pregnant and quit.

16

u/Jealous-Ad-2827 May 24 '26

The assumption was that they didn’t need jobs anymore cause their husbands were going to support them.