Women's Business

Ilene Kantrov

Summary of the essay:

This essay is about some women from the USA who remained successful in their business due to their innovative strategies. They did various things to alert the women about the prevailing issues and problems they faced. Despite their claim that their products could definitely be beneficial for women, their interest in earning money was more important than in improving society. These women used attractive advertisements for selling their products. They also used the traditional feminine image to market their products. They impressed the women customers considering themselves as social activists, philanthropists, social reformers and saviours of their sex and race. Though they seemed to favour altruism, their main motive was to earn profit from their business. Very often, they printed reports from women patients that their home remedies had cured a number of physical ills, infertility, nervousness, hysteria and even marriage related problems. But often such advertisements were objectionable and unproven.  Some women who were involved in such business were:

1. Lydia E. Pinkham: In 1879, Lydia E. Pinkham was selling a medicine that she had invented herself. It was called 'Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound'. Her advertisements claimed that her medicine could cure a number of physical ills, infertility, nervousness, hysteria and even marriage related problems. Moreover, her home remedy promised a relief from 'falling of the womb and all female weaknesses'. She not only advertised her products but also supported women's rights, temperance and financial reforms. She encouraged women patients to be treated by only women doctors. She also gave advice to them on diet, exercise and hygiene. Thus she earned name, fame and money. She set an example for other business women of the following century.

2. Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubinstein: These two business women were rivals or competitors. They produced and sold make-up or cosmetics. They try to motivate consumers' attention by their marriages to rich and famous men from Europe. In 1909, Elizabeth Arden introduced her first line of make-up and later her beauty parlours added skin-care, cosmetics, hair-styling, readymade and custom clothes. She also advised on nutrition, exercise a nd even yoga.

Helena Rubinstein published a book on the benefits of eating raw food and sold them to her customers. They both persuaded people that a beauty salon could 'remake' a woman inside and out. Thus they flourished their business and earned fame and money.

3. Margaret Rudkin: She began to sell healthy food that she first used to help her sick son. She prepared her first 'loaf of additive-free whole wheat bread' as a part of special diet for an asthmatic son of her own. She secured her first order from her neighbourhood grocer in 1937.

4. Jennie Grossinger: Jennie Grossinger owned a grand and successful hotel. She ran a resort hotel in upstate New York that was famous for its food and entertainment. Grossinger managed to remain an attentive Jewish Grandmother in the eyes of her customers long after she had appointed a public relations man. Her hotel began to serve 150,000 guests a year. Like other business women, Jennie Grossinger also generously contributed to hospitals, schools and cultural organizations.

5. Gertrude Muller: Gertrude Muller sold things to help people look after their babies. She put small books explaining her ideas in the packages of the things she sold. She wrote about child raising. Her booklets were widely distributed by doctors and used by home economics instructors. The name of her product was 'Toidey Seat' (1924).

6. Annie Turnbo Malone:  she was a black American. She sold a chemical making hair look nice. She also began a school to train people how to use her products. She said the school was for the improvement of black people. She developed a 'poro' system of hairdressing and named it 'Poro college'. She called it a passport to economic independence for women. Her booklets advocated the benefits of good hygiene, thrift and other homely virtues.

All these business women generously contributed to hospitals, schools and cultural organizations. Their advertising claims were often extravagant and misleading. Their business practices were questionable in the sight of FDA (Food and Drug Administration) and FTC (Federal Trade Commission).

Question-Answers

1. What is the thesis (theme) of the essay? How did the business women (female entrepreneur) differ from their male counterparts? In which way did they resemble the male entrepreneurs of their days?

The thesis of the essay is to focus on the success of American business women who adopted innovative business strategy and established themselves in respectable position in the business field as well as in the society. The business women were also involved in social work for uplifting the society. However, their aim was to promote their own business on the pretext of social service for the sake of their business, they activated the society, earned money and upgraded their own position in the society.             

The women entrepreneurs discussed in this essay were different in many ways from their counterparts. The women were involved in earning money along with social service for upgrading their own position. Adopting the cleverest marketing techniques by rendering practical advice on various aspects of life, they activated the women of the society. They were not only involved in selling their products but also played an important role for the benefit of the society. They cleverly utilized their image of being prestigious women to upgrade their business. Lydia supported the women and declared that she was saviour of her sex. Lydia advised her women customers to bypass the male physician. Adopting new business skills, the female entrepreneurs were able to introduce feminine’s role in the male dominated  world of commerce in America.                   

The business women were similar to their male counterparts in the matters of obeying the law of the state despite their objectionable claims about their products through misleading and lavish advertisement.

2. What is the main idea of the essay?(064)

►The main idea of the essay is that the business women in the United States of America tried to help women by selling their products to them. Often their methods of helping women, for example, through giving advice, helped them sell more products. For example, Lydia E. Pinkham combined marketing efforts with her innovative strategies for economic and social change. All these female capitalists were equally profit-oriented and careful about their products' social and moral effectiveness. Thus, they cleverly and successfully maintained the balance between the profit motive and social service.

3. How did Pinkham act as a saviour of her sex? (069)

►Lydia E. Pinkham acted as a saviour of her sex by adopting innovative strategies to promote her business of home-made herbal medicines especially for suffering women. She, in fact, exploited the feminine fears and weaknesses. She not only offered her products to them, but also showed an equal concern for women's social and economic status. She supported women's rights, temperance and economic reforms. She gave them practical advice on hygiene, diet and exercise. She advertised her products along with her kindly face by printing in the newspapers. She boldly claimed that her product could cure a number of female diseases and weaknesses though they were questionable, objectionable and unproven scientifically. As she claimed, her marketing efforts were not only to promote her business but also a campaign for economic and social reforms. She cleverly imaged herself as a saviour of her sex.

4. How did the women start and flourish their business in America? (061)

► Some women who were involved in business in the USA in the late nineteenth century were:

      See  the summary of the essay (second Paragraph) from no. 1 to 6.

 

The End