© 2011 Bénédicte Jourgeaud
© 2011 French-speaking Association of Readers of the Urantia Book
| Chicago Symposium 2011 - Photos | Le Lien Urantien — Issue 56 — Autumn 2011 | Maxi Quiz No. 7 The answers |
The story of Tupperware perfectly illustrates the American dream: the famous American way of life. Its founder, Earl Tupper, is a personality of modest origin who, thanks to a “good” idea (the airtight container), will build an empire with the notion that everyone can succeed through willpower! His dream is to save women time, it is always — a central question for them. In the forties, saving time is based on good organization. The “Wonderful Bowls” and other Tupperware containers allow you to preserve food, but also to better organize yourself in the kitchen. We talk about “optimizing” your time. This involves the choice of foods, their preservation, their storage. Tupperware is also Brownie Wise who, in America in the fifties, is proof that a woman can succeed. In 1954, she was the first woman to be on the cover of Business Week, which declared her “businesswoman of the year”. A great success for this divorced mother who started selling Tupperware to pay her sick son’s medical bills…
In the sixties, as today, Tupperware’s principle of internally advancing women who work for the brand will therefore appear as a real opportunity for professional advancement. Tupperware’s recruitment policy is to give women who have not necessarily studied extensively the opportunity to obtain a job. When you are a Tupperware presenter, it is not diplomas that allow you to progress (no recruitment is done on CV), but involvement in the profession. The jobs offered by Tupperware brand concessions will allow mothers to start a professional activity. Later, Tupperware will also be a solution to reconcile their family life and a job in a society where fewer and fewer women stop working when they become mothers.
Beautifying their daily lives, all the young housewives of the sixties dreamed of it. They indeed had a little desperate housewives side. Leisure activities for them were not very developed. Their husbands worked a lot. Going to the movies or to a restaurant was still extraordinary. Also, when Tupperware arrived in homes, a sort of mini revolution occurred. Because not only did Tupperware products make life easier for housewives, but they also opened up new horizons for them thanks to home sales meetings. “At that time, whether in wealthy or simpler circles, many women did not have confidence in themselves. They were housewives and regretted it. Tupperware meetings allowed them to talk to each other. For some, to work, something they had never thought possible.”
Tupperware is an atypical company, well anchored in its time. Its original organization offers a unique opportunity to all enterprising and enthusiastic men and women to work, without any selection when hiring, and to succeed. Its adventure is expressed through: innovative products with avant-garde materials and designs, direct and network sales, the factory and innovation, plastics, colors and shapes, Tupperware meetings transformed into culinary workshops, the use of products which, from the cupboard, went to the refrigerator, then to the freezer, then to traditional and microwave ovens, and finally a diversification towards new plastic materials and collections of high-end pots and knives. The company has also shown itself to be inventive and innovative by pursuing a sustainable development policy since the 1980s thanks to its multi-use plastic products.
Tupperware remains above all a human company. At a time when, even at supermarket checkouts, human presence is becoming increasingly rare, the Tupperware culinary workshop remains a symbol of conviviality and humanity. It maintains a social bond that modern life and the advent of digital technology and remote communication continue to weaken. This is based on the unique experience of a strong relationship with culinary advisors, instructors and dealers. This direct sales bond that unites destinies around personal and collective successes is a true human adventure. As the years go by, filled with warmth, pleasure and humanity, the satisfaction that is undoubtedly the most rewarding there is is born: that of offering others a chance to flourish and succeed. Tupperware would thus have participated in a process of social homogenization in large American cities and their suburbs by offering jobs to middle-class women, including women of color who until then had difficulty finding rewarding work. Allowing some of them to set up their own “small business”, alongside their activity as mothers. At the time, this was something innovative.
Tupperware is a big family based on the quality of human relations. You discover the company through a friend who invites you to participate in a culinary workshop that she organizes. In turn, you become a “hostess” of a Tupperware culinary workshop, then you decide to work for the brand as a culinary advisor, to then become an instructor, and why not a dealer. Professional advancement is built through willpower, success and enthusiasm. It can be very fast and brilliant Because Tupperware is “the universe of possibility”. A formula which, since 1961, is still valid for those who decide to invest in this professional activity.
But to get involved, you have to give the best of yourself. At Tupperware, it is first and foremost the community spirit that unites all workers around its products. The Tupperware sales network was built around internal development and many of the concepts that still exist today have endured since they were put in place by Brownie Wise. She was the one who declared in 1954: “If you invest in people, then they will invest in their work.” The idea? By giving everyone a chance - without distinction or selection, regardless of their level of qualification - and by training them, they will only be more motivated. This is how Tupperware has always offered training to its sales force. Training to give self-confidence… At the end of the first training sessions, the Tupperware presenters, who generally had not studied at university, were awarded diplomas, sometimes the first of their lives. Very symbolic, these graduation ceremonies are very often moments of great emotion for these women who were sorely lacking recognition in America in the fifties…
According to “Tupperware, the French saga”, Le Cherche Midi
Editor’s note (editor’s note): By erasing the competitive and overly mercantile spirit of Tupperware, can we not draw inspiration from its leadership and the implementation of its human values to promote the teaching of the UB booklets? Entrust our (feminine) halves with the task of holding such meetings at home?.. For sure, this joke has no other use than to reflect on the concerns of the moment!
Benedicte Jourgeaud
| Chicago Symposium 2011 - Photos | Le Lien Urantien — Issue 56 — Autumn 2011 | Maxi Quiz No. 7 The answers |