ISBN: 9780190499822
Editorial: Oxford University Press
Autor: Manko, Katina
Año de edición: 2021
N° Paginas: 304
Tipo de pasta: Pasta dura
Descripción: The Avon Lady acquired iconic status in twentieth century American culture. This first history of Avon tells the story of a direct sales company that was both a giant in its industry and a kitchen-table entrepreneurial venture.With their distinctive greeting at the homes across the country--Ding Dong! Avon Calling!--sales ladies brought door-to-door sales of makeup, perfume, and other products to American women beginning in 1886. Working for the company enabled women to earn money on the side and even become financially independent in a respectable profession while selling Avon's wares to friends, family, and neighborhood networks.Ding Dong! Avon Calling! is the story of women and entrepreneurship, and of an innovative corporation largely managed by men that empowered women to exploit networks of other women and their community for profit. Founded in the late nineteenth century, Avon grew into a massive international direct sales company in which millions of "ambassadors of beauty" sat in their customers' living rooms with a sample case, catalogue, and a conversational sales pitch. Avon was unique in American business history for its reliance on women as representatives, promising them not just sales positions, but a chance to have a business of their own. Being an Avon Lady avoided the stigma that was often attached to middle-class women's work outside the home and enabled women to maintain the delicate balance of work and family. Drawing for the first time on company records she helped acquire for archives, Katina Manko illuminates Avon's inner workings, uncovers the lives of its representatives, and shows howwomen slowly rose into the company's middle and upper management. Avon called itself "The Company for Women" and championed its high flyers, but its higher echelons remained dominated by men well into the 1990s.Avon is more than perfumes and toiletries, but a brand built on women knocking on doors and chatting up neighbors. It thrived for more than a century through the deceptively simple technique of women directly selling beauty to women at home.Review"Manko details Avon's history from its origins as the California Perfume Company through its expansion in the 20th century....For most, Avon was not a career but a small supplement to their household economies. Manko differentiates the experiences of the women who made up the direct sales force, most of whom worked for Avon less than two years, offering profiles of women who rarely served as company executives until after the sexual revolution. Using their social networks to sell beauty products door-to-door, middle-class women were able to enter the labor force without challenging traditional stances on women's work. The book also explores Andrea Jung's appointment as CEO and the corporate charity initiatives she instituted to support women with breast cancer and anti-domestic violence causes....Useful for business or gender studies programs." -- Choice"Useful for business or gender studies programs." -- A. B. Johnson, Choice Connect"Katina Manko's thoroughly researched and deftly written book on Avon products presents a fresh take on the beauty and fashion industry, one that breaks with and demystifies the cliches of the past. [...] Manko's nuanced tale of a company, an industry and a group of women evolving over time will make a lasting contribution to our understanding of how economics and gender typically play out. If we are to build a distinctively gendered theory of economics from which to understand women's disadvantages and to fight for their financial liberty, books like this are essential." -- Linda Scott, The Guardian"Ding Dong! Avon Calling! is a lively and informative account of a firm that sold women cosmetics and promised them entrepreneurial independence. By taking Avon Ladies seriously as economic actors, Katina Manko reveals the nuances and complexities of gender, race, and enterprise, challenging our very notion
- Idioma: Inglés
- Envío: Desde EE. UU.
- Libro Impreso y Nuevo
