[Previous entry: "Advertising To the Older Woman --- the Woman With Power and Money"] [Next entry: "Advertising Shouldn't Be Entertainment, it Should Sell."]

02/17/2007: "Fortune Magazine 1938 --- No Sportswomen Need Apply"

I was catching up on my reading this weekend. I got interested in a 1938 issue of Fortune.(It's amazing what you miss by not being born yet!)

Well, I learn that Ginger Rogers was voted the best dressed "girl" in entertainment. Mrs. Joseph P. Kennedy was voted the best dressed in public life. Kitty Carlisle was so voted for woman on the stage.

But what stood out was that "A number of sportswomen were considered, but nobody qualified."

Well!

A NEW DAY

Let the record show that things have changed. To wit:

In 1990, Life magazine named Billie Jean King one of the "100 Most Important Americans of the 20th Century". In 1994, she ranked No. 5 on Sports Illustrated's "Top 40 Athletes" list for significantly altering or elevating sports the last four decades.

I don't think anyone much cares if women athletes wear Prada. Women are no longer judged on what they wear. And today, a woman is as apt to be on the cover of Fortune as a man.

So in catching up with my reading, I'm glad I wasn't around in 1938. The good ol' days weren't so good.