Word: levi
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Levi Strauss is also working to upgrade some office jobs that are now held by women. In the past year, 15 secretaries have been raised to administrative assistants-and not in name only. They allocate department budgets, make periodic changes in the size of salesmen's territories and investigate the causes of canceled orders. Indeed, top management reasons that many executives can do without secretaries; some are being phased out by promotion or attrition. The company has also liberalized its maternity-leave policy. In the past, women who left had no guarantee that they would get their jobs back...
...most women were bunched into the lowest-paying jobs as secretaries, patternmakers, stencilers. Most men were in the better paid posts as salesmen or cloth cutters. Though 85% of the company's employees were women, only 9% of the 572 managers were women. Says Sharon Weiner, who heads Levi Strauss's "Affirmative Action Program for Women": "When a woman came to the door for a job, she was told only about those that had historically been held by women. Nobody ever sat down and thought what it was like to be a woman in the company...
Secretaries Out. For the first time, Levi Strauss is moving women into its field sales force; two are already working, one is in training, and orders are out to hire at least seven more before September. Some retailers warned that women in selling would have trouble with lecherous buyers. Haas rejects that argument. A more serious concern is that married saleswomen with children could face problems at home if they were forced to put in three-day or four-day stretches on the road. "We let the woman decide if she can handle it," says Borrelli...
...moderately bright beginnings, Levi Strauss's experiment has yet to resolve some problems. Upgrading and training secretaries for the new higher-paying administrative posts is an added company expense...
...Levi Strauss's sales and distribution departments, transfers are considered part of the job, but married women find it tough to relocate because their husbands will not leave their jobs. Beyond that, Levi Strauss, like many other companies, may have trouble meeting the new job demands of competing groups of activists. Says Borrelli: "There just aren't that many job openings. We are under pressure to hire women, blacks, Chicanos and Viet Nam veterans. I told our chairman that about 80% of our new managerial positions in the next five years could well be filled with non-males...