IBM / ENTRY SYSTEMS WESTERN REGION
Original lithographed poster commemorating the "Extraordinary Style" and staff of IBM Entry Systems, Western Region — signed by all team members, including at least eight women.
Near fine.
Price: $500.00
IBM / ENTRY SYSTEMS WESTERN REGION
IBM's Entry Level Systems, headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, developed the first IBM personal computer, the IBM 5150, in 1981 to great and industry-changing success. They released the follow-up model, the XT, in early 1983, establishing the company's dominance over the early microcomputing market. Shortly after, management upgraded and restructured ELS into the Entry Systems Division, under the leadership of Don Estridge. The most senior employee named on this poster is [Brendan] Mac McLoughlin, a longtime IBM executive who would soon depart for competitor Compaq.
The inclusion of women's names among the team members (and at least one manager) was not a new breakthrough for the company; IBM staff had included women in manufacturing roles since the 1930s and executive positions since the 1940s, and the company still proudly cites founder Thomas Watson's 1935 declaration that "Men and women will do the same kind of work for equal pay." By the end of the 1980s, thanks in part to federal affirmative action programs and civil rights laws, as well as IBM's own existing internal policies, women held close to a third of IBM's management positions. Then, as now, the corporation made public commitments to hiring and valuing female employees (though as one contemporary study of women in computing noted back in 1984, "it is the men, and not the women, who need the training to be able to accept competent women technicians and managers as colleagues").
Read more: Miller, "The Original IBM PC: Lessons Learned," PC Mag; Larkin, "Women in Computer Services," Computerworld, 1984.
The Object
First edition. n.p. [IBM], (1983). 11'' x 18''. Original blue-and-white lithographed poster, printed with 32 employee names. Signed in pen by all named employees. Trace edgewear, minor spotting to verso. Sharp.
The Fine Print
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