In 1933, Were There Any Women In Charge Of Big Corporations?
Intriguing story, but was it true to life?
Absurdity: A Statement or belief inconsistent with my opinion.
I am formerly known as HillieBoliday.....Member since May 2006.
I would think NOT....but then again I could be wrong. I know this movie was pre-code; and although real life was 'pre-code' to a certain degree as well....women were NOT in charge of big corporations. During that time women were expected to marry, bear children, take care of the home....and depend on their husbands for EVERYTHING! If they worked....it certainly was not running things and making decisions for a company. For those women who were fortunate enough to attend college....it was basically to find a husband!
In the IMDB Trivia Section for this movie, it states that General Motors just named it's first female CEO, Mary Bara, January of 2014. The first time in history a woman was appointed to head an automobile company anywhere in the world....80 years after this film was made!
So.....in lieu of not having done any research....I still doubt seriously if ANY company during that era had a woman at the helm of a major corporation....or even a little one for that fact.
"OOhhhooo....I'M GON' TELL MAMA!"
The only one I could think of is Mary Pickford:
Founder/President of Mary Pickford Company, a production company formed in 1919, and the Mary Pickford Film Corporation, formed in 1916. The former produced films only for Pickford, the latter company produced non-Pickford films.
Of course, Mary would later be one of the founding members of United Artists, along with her husband Douglas Fairbanks, D.W. Griffith and Charlie Chaplin. share
I am formerly known as HillieBoliday.....Member since May 2006.
Thanks for your post....familiar with Mary Pickford....."America's Sweetheart," but I'd forgotten about her production company. Although I really don't know that much about it, and based on her entrepreneurship (not sure if that's a proper word...LOL); she would most certainly qualify to bear the esteem of achieving what most women were not able to do at that time. I'm thinking hers was a very unique and elite opportunity due to the influence she wielded as a powerful, money-making star in Hollywood, and the admiration she had from the movie going public at that time.
As Founder/President, it would be interesting to know just how hard she had to work/fight/defend her position and voice within the production company. The men she was partnered with were in categories all by themselves! The dashing swashbuckling, Douglas Fairbanks; the very controversial director of the offensive, "Birth of a Nation," D.W. Griffith; and of course the scandalously, laughable Charlie Chaplin; these three just by virtue of who they were and what they represented in Hollywood....we know they were very powerful!
"OOhhhooo....I'M GON' TELL MAMA!"
Madam C. J. Walker was a self-made millionaire who ran a big cosmetics corporation she founded, a couple decades before "Female" came out:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madam_C._J._Walker
More big managers in the movie-production business in the early silent years: Alice Guy-Blaché, Lois Weber, and Julia Crawford Ivers.
It was more common for women to have managerial roles in government, education and social programs (e.g., Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor from 1933-1945) than to be heads of corporations. But still, I'm sure there are more names we could add. Julia Morgan was to architecture what Mary Pickford was to movies.
I am formerly known as HillieBoliday.....Member since May 2006.
Thanks so much...claudecat....for that reminder and history. I am very familiar with Madam C.J. Walker, have every book I could find on her life. As a child, my grandmother used her hair care products, and applied them to my hair as well.
I thought about her very briefly, and made the mistake of only looking at her company as a grassroots venture;(HUGE MISTAKE)seeing as though she and her company were highly successful and gave women on a national level a sense of pride and some sort of financial independence.
On a final note: I do a video presentation and lecture on the history of the 'Harlem Renaissance' as part of a history curriculum at one of our local high schools, and Madam C.J. Walker has a segment in my presentation.....shame on me for leaving her out!
Thanks again......and 40 LASHES WITH A WET NOODLE FOR ME!
"OOhhhooo....I'M GON' TELL MAMA!"