Evening star., 1927-09-25

} working cf it hampers him at every
! turn raises a multitude of anAletltS
/ which inhibit the full play of his men
/ tai powers. Sex prejudiceS. Ike othet
/ forms of prejudice, close MS hhiit''
/ make him unable to eNaluate correctly
/ suggestions which come to him frolh
/ women or which concern women. make
hlm self-ConsciouA and irritable and
| limit his productive Imagination me
| offices of America are chOked with
! potential failures who do not know
| that sex prejudice is the carbon that
, is clogeing th@ir mental cylinders.
| y X =
! T RECALL the case of Mr.. +. on the
sudden death of his father he III
/ herited the control of an advertising
! finn The success of this company.
/ whose biggest accounts Centered
around products made especially TO ap-
! peal To women~-perfumes soaps.
| household appliances-was largely due
| to an able woman copy writer who
/ had been with them for many years
and whom the older man. openly vel
coming her ability, had steadily ad-
vanCed But young B. had deeply
rooted unconscious sex fear against
! women in business, an attitude Whlch
was probably aCCentuated against this
! particular woman because of her
| keener and quicker mind and her
greater experience. Although he could
| have learned a great deal from her
and would have been willing to do 50
had she been a he.man, ne began IN
! stead to harry her.
On one pretcxt or another he took
some of the larger accounts away from
her and gave them to a man whose
chief alibi was that he played good
game of golf. lie advanced men over
the head of the woman copy, writer
and unConSCiouslY resisted any suE-
CeStionS she made to him, rationale
ing this prejudice to himself by
score Of devices.
The end of this story is short, sad
and simple. Several of his big ac-
counts. dissatisfied with the less able
handling of their copy. withdrew their
business. The promising enterprise
which Mr.. +. had inherited failed. and
in middle life he was left to start
again The woman copy writer, whose
reputation in the advertising world far
exceeded his own, and who had stayed
with him only from sense of loyalty
| to the father, was grabbed up by an
| other f1rm-at twice her former salary
and departed thence. trailing her
former accounts behind her like d
cloud of glory.
1nlS Is not an lSOldteu tdSt' WI PEI :
haps a less spectacular scale it is being
duplicated in hundreds of offices. Its
mainsprings not only lie in mans faulty
understanding of what real power is,
but are caused, in individual cases,
bv twisted patterns of training, in the
home life. From the pSyChOanalYtlC
point of view the man unconsciouSly
resents the fact that he has ever been
forced to grow up and leave the pro
lection of his home and his mother s
intimate care. Because of his real love
of being dependent he harbors uncon-
sCiOus grudges. He desires to get
revenge on his mother and takes IL
out on any woman, as a substitute of
the mother, who finds herself in
position subordinate TO him.
4 4
THE important thing to remember
l. in any discussion of the mental
abilities of men and women is not that
the mind of one sex is superior,
inferior" or "equal" to the other
psychologists have long since discarded
those ideas-but that their mental
and emotional equipments are COM
Elementary, as are the lock and the
key. Man is more intellectualistic in
his tendency in arriving at conclu-
Sions woman more feeling. Both
reach the goal, but by different routes.
This is why the woman's point of view
in business should be made a definite
asset, because it supplements and com
plements the mans. Her intuitive
sense Is especially valuable when it
comes to sizing up people, because at
that she is an adept. since her success
for millions of years has depended
on it.
Moreover the man who SrOrnS a
feminine method of thinking should.
to be consistent. go through his or
ganization and weed out a good many
Of the trousers-wearers also. Feminine
minds are not always concealed in
feminine bodies; they may be asso-
ciated with fierce boards and broad
shoulders, just as the mental machin-
cry more common to men often turks
behind graceful contours and peach
like compilations. 1t is a comc-strip
idea. with no more truth than the
comic strip usually has, that the mas
culine thinking female must of neces-
sity be fiat of chest and narrow OF hip.
The way for women to meet sex
prejudice in business is not to COM
bat it, but to recognize its existence
and meet it tactfully. 1t is not found
now in the broader type of men.
Really big men recognize the ability
of women and work with them with
out sex-consciousness. But where it
still exists it has to be reckoned with.
| recall one woman who has met ii
with special success. Her personality
and unusual ability in a firm catering
| to women has raised her to the posi-.
| ton of it's vice president. Once, In
her search for new sales manager,
| she offered the position to an able man