Not a ‘fairytale’ workplace: A letter penned by Walt Disney, refusing to hire female candidates goes viral

An 86-year-old rejection letter is now creating an uproar on the Internet.

The letter, issued by none other than Walt Disney in 1938, has gone viral online for being sexist. The letter addresses a female candidate, Miss Ford who approached him for a job.

The letter reads, “Women do not do any of the creative work in connection with preparing the cartoons for the screen, as that work is performed entirely by young men. For this reason, girls are not considered for the training school,”


The letter also mentioned that the only jobs at Disney women were eligible for, were “racing the characters on clear celluloid sheets with India ink and filling in the tracings on the reverse side with paint according to directions.”

The letter also stipulated that in order to become an ‘Inker’ or ‘Painter’, interested candidates must show up at the studio and bring some samples of their work.

The letter was shared on a sub Reddit named ‘DamnThat’sInteresting’ and within moments it went viral and gained 42K likes. Redditors had a field day poking fun at the blatant misogyny.

“We already have a diversity hire,” quipped one user, referring to the hiring policy adopted by many companies today. Another observed, “I love how the reasoning is pure tautology. The second paragraph is basically saying "Women do not do this work because women do not do this work."

“It was the way work was structured everywhere at the time, there were simply jobs that women were hired to do, and everything else was done by men. No explanation was needed, it would be like asking why some jobs were on the first floor and others on the second floor,” pointed out another user.