Post vs. Vanderbilt on 1950s Etiquette

Emily Post felt that employers may be embarrassed if a pregnant woman was working him an office. Amy Vanderbilt strongly disagreed. Lucile Ball broke a barrier on her hit television show by showing herself pregnant on screen in 1952. According to ScreenRant.com, “As one of the first hit TV series, I Love Lucy had to tread the murky waters in establishing what networks, censors, and audiences would and wouldn't accept on TV.  When Lucille Ball, the actress who played lead character Lucy Ricardo, got pregnant, the series had to figure out how to handle an expectant mother on TV. Luckily for the network, Ball was married to co-star Desi Arnaz, who played her TV husband Ricky Ricardo, meaning that there was little scandal with the actress being pregnant, only how to present it to viewers. The major problem that CBS had with the pregnancy was not the state of Lucy, but with the word pregnancy itself. Noted as a medical and indecent word, CBS refused to allow the word to be spoken on screen. Dancing around the facts for the whole episode, and even using the French word for pregnancy, "Enceinte" in the title, in the last moments of the episode Lucy tricked her husband into figuring out that they were in the family way. 55 years later, ‘Knocked Up’ premiered. We've come a long way.”– Image source, Pinterest

To the Ladies: From the Editor

Emily Post, arbiter of etiquette, lays down the rule: “If a pregnant woman works in a small office she can stay at work, provided it does not embarrass her employer. But in a large office, she should leave when her condition becomes obvious.”

Amy Vanderbilt, another authority on etiquette, who says that she herself worked in a big office until six weeks before the birth of her second son, disagrees, contending that “this is a completely accepted thing to-day.”

The turning point so far as etiquette is concerned, Amy Vanderbilt says, was during World War II, when women were desperately needed in their jobs.

Obstetricians, according to the New York Times, “are all but unanimous in praise of the trend. There is nothing harmful about a pregnant woman working, they say, provided she feels comfortable about it.”

The main problem, it seems, in many cases is transportation to and from work. In crowded buses and streetcars women have found that there is not a vast number of cavaliers who will offer a seat to a pregnant woman.

One woman who worked until three days before delivery reported that other women occasionally gave their seat. But male travelers: “Never!” Guess Mothers’ Day, like Christmas, comes only once a year – The East Bay Labor Journal, 1958

🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia