‘Measured by two yardsticks’: women in bank management training, 1960s to 1990s

ABSTRACT

In the 1960s and 1970s, the United States government ordered corporations to remedy sex discrimination by increasing the number of women working in male-dominated job categories. This article traces the grassroots activism and government policies that led to the creation of management training programs for women in the commercial banking industry. To move women into the managerial job of a bank officer, conflicting advice emerged about how to best design and deliver training programs that could reconcile the real and imagined incongruities between women’s traditional social roles and the masculine character of managerial job positions. This article uses prescriptive literature, government documents, social science research, and mainstream media articles to show the ideological tension that arose as women began moving into the ranks of commercial banking management. Which women should be selected for training? What should be the content and structure of the programs? While many academics and practitioners considered the benefits of having separate training for women, others questioned if female managers should continue to be trained separately from male managers. The integration of women into commercial banking management likely sparked a broader discussion about the ideal qualities of managers. Female traits and tendencies could enhance the management function, helping to reconcile the traditional role incongruity between woman and manager.

KEYWORDS:

• Women and leadership
• management education
• training and development
• EEO compliance
• U.S. commercial banking

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Prescriptive literature remains underutilized as evidence of cultural messaging (Vallas and Hill 2019) and this paper draws upon advice to practitioners to better understand societal attitudes and corporate responses.

2. See articles from the Cleveland Plain Dealer in Although Cleveland women initially won 15 million dollars in back pay for the banking workers, they eventually had to settle the case for much less money once President Reagan took office.

3. Information Science Incorporated & Humanic Designs Division, How to Eliminate Discriminatory Practices: A Guide to EEO Compliance (New York: AMACOM, 1975), pp. 67–68. In fact, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) knew that many firms would rather look externally versus train and promote internally. The EEOC issued detailed instructions to personnel about mining the external labor market for suitable women and underrepresented minorities if internal candidates were not qualified for the open position.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Allison Elias

Allison Elias is a Senior Fellow and Lecturer in the Management Department at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.