The Girls in the Office

by Jack Olsen

CREASES ON CORNERS OF COVERS. READING CREASES ON SPINE. NO WRITING OR MARKS ON PAGES.

Genres: Nonfiction

448 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1972

Reviews

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Found this book in a junk store over the weekend and thought wow, how did I ever miss this one?

Sadly, it's actually pretty boring. It could have been a truly fascinating portrait of the period with some massive, or simply better, editing; additional background info would have helped too. The major problem with this book, though, is that oddly, while it's supposedly interviews with 15 different women, they all basically speak in the same voice. It reads as if the author translated all his interview conversations to his voice, or he just made them up, or all 15 women actually did speak in exactly the same way. Whichever it is, the result reminds me of what happens when you hear or say the same word over and over and eventually it loses all meaning.

So, it's probably much better skipping around and reading this book in short sessions instead of plowing straight through, but having said that, and even though it made my head hurt to read, I'm wishing I knew what happened to all of these women!

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating book about the work environment in a large Manhattan-based company in the 1960s as told by the women who worked there. The interviews do not read at all as such, but reminded me of certain Mad Men episodes, which must take inspiration from this social history. Disturbing, sad, and fascinating, reading this made me appreciate how far we (in the US) have come with respect to treatment of women in the work environment and in society at large.

[Sharren Bates · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interviews with professional women in 1971 NYC. Total madmen territory. I LOVE a good "young ladies making their way in the big city" story. Spoiler alert: everybody gets hit on by their married bosses.

[Paula · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insightful and salacious true stories told by office girls (ranging in age from 20s - 50s) who work for a very prestigious, high profile NYC company in the late 1960s / early 1970s. This is written at the very start of the women’s liberation movement, when drinking and parties at work were still rampant as were multiple hour long lunches, and high executive men could get away with just about anything. It’s fascinating to see how much the workplace culture has changed in 50+ years; some of it is downright shocking if you didn’t live during this era. Every chapter consists of an anonymous interview with a girl from the office, who discusses their background, personal life struggles while living in NYC, and experiences working for this company. Each interviewee provides insight into their perspective of office colleagues and managers, some of whom are also interviewed in subsequent chapters. It is interesting to compare how they view each other and reiterates why it is not necessarily a bad idea to keep a low profile in the workplace. I am not sure how I even acquired this book, but I’m so glad I stumbled upon it. If you love true stories and history, I highly recommend it. It is definitely a page-turner and makes for some great beach reading!!

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a must-read for fans of Mad Men.
The book was fascinating, but it was also easy to read it a chapter here, a chapter there. I found a lot of these stories too depressing to read them all at once!

[Leda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't actually finish this book, just read a few of the chapters. It's a very interesting glimpse into what being a working woman in the 1960s and '70s was, it just didn't hold together as a full book for me.

[Laura-Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, but I only made it halfway through. I think he could have abbreviated most of the stories, but I understand why he didn't. I wonder what people said about this book when it was published in 72. I mean 448 pages is a beast of a book.

[Amber]

Referenced here wrt Mad Men: http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.c...

[Steen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't know how I finished this book. I found it boring. I should have not bothered and went on to read something else.

[Rhoda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Held my interest at first and then so much repetition that it became a boring chore.