Political job description, 1966
Thankfully, some things have changed rather a lot in politics since 1966 as you can see from this job description for an executive assistant from that year.
Party unknown, although the odds are slightly in favour of it being a Liberal Party job ad given that it ended up in my collection, which is heavily weighted towards Liberal Democrat, SDP and Liberal material.
A part from the obvious, I’m a bit worried by tghe need for a ‘shear’ personality!
Oh, yes, I noticed that! Was he (presumably he) thinking of sheer stocking or sharp garden choppers, or was this a Scottish Highland MP with alot of sheep? I can’t actually work out what he WAS trying to say there.
I remember “age group” appearing on job descriptions and person specs well after this date. It was discriminatory, but people were blind to that. I think even in 1966 it would have been quite unusual to have specified “good looking”, though of course it was often an unstated specification. Subtler is the use of words like “quiet” and “unobtrusive”. Of course the employer does not want a self-promoting disorderly loudmouth, but a bit of thought about what is actually required to do the job well would lead to other language.
I think ‘typing not required’ was a bit unfortunate. A competent typist could have done wonders for future job ads.
The past can seem so very awkward … yet we are likely to be more the same than different when the future ponders our values, practices and blind spots …
As a “pink” young Conservative at the time – the document looks remarkably familiar. “The flesh crept” even then. I was 21 in 1966. In those “halcyon” days , discrimination was a virtue. The English language was about to be changed with the loss of meaning for Capital letters by the BBC.
From the use of “Deputy Chairman”, it is rather more likely to be from the Conservatives. On a few occasions when forming community /club ‘constitutions’ on a totally different way non-party political matter or interest, I have noticed over the tears that members from that background quite in-self consciously and innocently use and and intrude it.