From the Archives: Help Wanted, Women

At a time when most job opportunities for women were clerical or domestic, this ad seeking mathematicians to join The RAND Corporation under the "Help Wanted, Women" section of the 1953 Los Angeles Times really stands out.

As recently as the 1970s, newspaper want ads were segregated by gender, making RAND way ahead of the curve when they posted the same jobs under "Help Wanted, Female" as under "Help Wanted, Male." Throughout the 1950s and 60s, RAND sought computer programmers, psychologists, mathematicians, and engineers without regard for gender, sometimes directing potential female applicants to see the “Male” advertisement of The RAND Corporation, or noting that "women can qualify as well as men."

In 1969, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ruled that separate want ads for men and women were a violation of the Civil Rights Act. Newspaper publishers challenged the ruling, anticipating advertising revenue losses and citing inconvenience to job seekers, but by the mid-1970s, women's groups, public opinion, and failed court cases had made separate want ads history.