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You're concerned about controversy, because the origin is clearly sexist. Men running businesses wanted attractive women welcoming visitors (ie. other men) and
by goseeastarwar 9y ago
You're concerned about controversy, because the origin is clearly sexist. Men running businesses wanted attractive women welcoming visitors (ie. other men) and helping them with tasks around the office.
The continuing problem is this hasn't changed much at all in the last half century. For example, you will not find one unattractive receptionist at any VC office on Sand Hill Rd.
- duncan_bayne 9y ago> I understand that beauty is subjective It's not, really: displays of health, wealth, leisure are pretty much common. Youth and fertility for women. Status and wealth for men. Body symmetry. My layperson's understanding is that some of the specifics can be contextual to a particular time and culture, but the principles are universal, and so are a good number of the specifics.
- goseeastarwar 9y agoI edited that line out, because it was superfluous. It's clear why these individuals were hired, in addition to being great at their job.
- peteretep 9y ago> Men running businesses wanted attractive > women Maybe, but it seems equally plausible to me that young (and old) women represented a large labour pool of sufficiently educated and equally intelligent workers who expected not to pursue a career (or had not been pursuing a career), were cut off from manual work, and in many cases wouldn't be averse to an environment where they might meet a young man with an office job. Secretarial and clerkship work was a primary male profession until mid 1900s.