I defied Mad Men by wearing pants … and I have a book of business to die for
March 7, 2019 by Bethan Moorcraft
Carmel Fauci (pictured) stumbled into the insurance industry over 50-years-ago, when she started working as a clerk for $50 a week. After graduating from high school at the age of 16, she never intended to work for an insurance company. Quite the contrary, she had dreams of going to art school and was awarded scholarships to do so – but she needed a job and the insurance industry came knocking.
As a teenager, Fauci worked for multiple small agencies and she developed a general understanding of insurance. She received little guidance until she landed a job at a major insurance brokerage, where her talent was nurtured, and she was taken under the wing of a supportive mentor. Fauci was eventually made the first ever female vice president of the brokerage and she suddenly found herself in the spotlight as a woman in a man’s world.
In circumstances that today would only belong in the American drama series Mad Men, Fauci found herself catapulted into the center of office speculation following her promotion to vice president. Gossips quickly suggested she only got the role because she was sleeping with the boss – a total falsehood that unfortunately was considered a common rationale for female business advancement in the 1960s and 70s.
“I was the only woman in all of the meetings and when I entered the room, the men would hush and say: ‘No more dirty jokes fellas, she’s here.’ On top of that, I was the only vice president without an office,” said Fauci. “Finally, I said to them: ‘What do I have to do if I need to tell off the man who works for me?’ We didn’t have access to conference rooms back then; it was a totally different world. Eventually they gave me an office, but they also told me I was the best of a bad lot. The other, more experienced women apparently didn’t want the vice president job, but they didn’t want to work for me either. I used to say: ‘Women are like a bucket of crabs.’ If one tries to crawl out of the bucket, the others will pull it back. That’s how women were in those days.”
Click HERE to read the full story via Insurance Business America.