Careers for women were very limited a hundred years ago. One option was to become a tea room manager, and the Lewis Tea Room Institute was ready to teach women how to become one.
1924 Lewis Tea Room Institute Advertisement
Careers for women were very limited a hundred years ago. One option was to become a tea room manager, and the Lewis Tea Room Institute was ready to teach women how to become one.
A Hundred Years Ago 
Do you know what a man might earn for a similar status job at that time?
No idea, but my general sense is that men usually earned substantively more than women back then.
‘Twas ever thus…
There was a wonderful tea room in our town, a number of years ago. For some reason, it was called the Russian Tea Room (situated in north-central PA) : ) It had delicious coffee and tea, both sweet rolls and sticky buns, along with lighter luncheon fare. I miss it. This ad makes the job sound good, but as with all culinary, it is tough work! They earn every penny. But you get to eat your mistakes. ; )
I also have childhood memories of a nice tea room. I guess that coffee shops have sort of replaced tea rooms, but they are very different.
Interesting advertisement. I found some information about the Lewis training course, and even a blog entry about a woman in Ohio who took the training course. In the 1930 census, she was 25 and managed a lunch room. She was divorced, with 2 children, living with her parents, but by 1940 was a Deputy Auditor for the county. Looks like she stepped up from the lunch room.
Wow, it’s amazing that she was able to move into a Deputy Auditor role. That won’t have been a typical job for a woman in 1940. I guess that lunch room managers need to be good at budgeting and managing money. Maybe that would somehow provide the skills needed to be an auditor.
According to the blog post, she was an A student in the course. 🙂
It was hard for women to find jobs back then. My mother was asked to leave her job in the 50’s when she was expecting. My mom was married but I imagine it was difficult for a divorced woman to find a job.
Whew, times were different back then. Some things sure have changed for the better across the years.
$5000 must have been an absolute fortune back then! And I bet it was a hard job. How interesting that women were expected to be interested in being ‘Executives’. Wonderful.
cheers
sherry
I wonder what a Tea Room Executive would do. Would that be the owner?
I wonder what those earnings would translate to in money today….
There’s been a lot of inflation across the years – though I tend to think that the food industry has generally been a sector with low wages both now and a hundred years ago.