Collage by Sally Edelstein

Of course no one wanted to end up a spinster in the 1950s and 1960s but smart single gals knew a job could be a Space age launching pad for snaring a husband. So until Prince charming came along, the glamorous world of “Gal Fridays that was the 60s career girl, beckoned.

Eagerly she would pursue the want ads which like public restrooms were still squarely divided between Male and female. Separate but not very equal.

Swimming in the Secretarial Pool

Detail Collage by Sally Edelstein “Men in Charge”

Learn shorthand in 6 weeks and you too could step into an exciting glamorous high paid secretarial job.

The days most sought after top salaried girl was a Nancy Taylor Secretarial school graduate trained for an exciting career as a poised and confident high skill secretary.

Vintage Illustration by Kurt Ard 1958 Saturday Evening Post

Glamor Awaits Exciting career

Imagine the thrill! A gal on the go, going places.

In your new freedom loving lycra girdle slimming you from every view, you’re a smashingly smooth success, racing amongst the bustle of NYC hurrying to work in your tight pencil skirt.

Making the scene, swinging down the crowded Avenue lined with skyscrapers and smart shops, you rush to that glitzy secretarial job to fetch coffee, type 60 words a minute on your IBM electric and devotedly take dictation from a handsome account executive in the hopes he would leave his wife for you and your cool assured finishing school looks.

Detail collage by Sally Edelstein “Men in Charge”

Nurses

Or with a perky starched cap on your head you could be an angel of mercy. Who wouldn’t want to be a beautiful young registered nurse in a great metropolitan hospital playing second fiddle to a pulse quickening handsome young doctor who would write a prescription for real love- the kind you couldn’t find in a Medical journal.

Stewardess Coffee Tea or Me

Detail Collage by Sally Edelstein “Men in Charge”

When it came to exciting jet age jobs the sky was the limit- literally! No job in the space age equaled the glamour of a high flying stewardess. “I’m Cheryl,” a pretty stewardess cooed from the pages of magazines for national airlines. “Fly Me!”

Stewardesses were the height of sophistication, serving her passengers as the jet whisked those lucky travel now pay later tourists away on their Roma holiday tours.

Chicly dressed in special designer uniforms straight off the runways of Paris, passengers were treated to the best fashion show on earth-in the sky.

The handsome pilots were the high flying answer to any girls dreams ready to make some lucky pilot a wonderful co pilot. She would be ready for takeoff: Destination: Matrimony.

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