Sexist Disney Rejection Letter Shoots Down Woman Wanting to Join Their Animator School in 1938

Disney Rejection Letter, 1938

In 1938, poor Miss Mary V. Ford of Searcy, Arkansas received this rejection letter from Walt Disney Productions letting her know that women have no chance of working in the creative area of their Inking and Painting Department and only a smidgen of a chance of tracing and filling in celluloids, “the only work open to women.” The letter, ironically signed by a different woman named “Mary,” was discovered by Ms. Ford’s grandson Kevin Burg after she died. A few years after this letter was sent, a woman by the name of Retta Scott joined Disney and became their first female animator. Her first project was creating art for the 1942 film Bambi.

image via Kevin Burg

via Business Insider, HRLori

Rusty Blazenhoff
Rusty Blazenhoff