PARTY MONSTER

 


How does a plastic bowl with a sealable lid relate to feminism? Oddly, by being an icon of housewife domesticity, Tupperware gave women unprecedented freedom. Brownie Wise, a single mother with money issues perfected the Tupperware Party and took women from the kitchen to the sales force - via the kitchen. Although ousted from the company she helped elevate, Brownie Wisesmade proper food storage common in American homes. Brownie Wise is remembered today as an icon of sales innovation.


Postwar America became a suburban paradise. Women needed to keep food fresher longer to feed broods of Baby Boom babies. Plastic containers as we know them today were practically non-existent. Earl Tupper, while working for Du Pont, use flexible polyethylene to fashion lightweight food storage containers. He founded his own company and began to sell his products and department stores. But housewives didn't exactly know what to do with the products so they mostly stayed on the shelves. But when bowl met Brownie, Tupperware took off.

Brownie May Humphrey, born 1913 in Georgia, was raised by an aunt after her parents' divorce. Her mother was a union organizer for a hat maker's union. Brownie left school after 8th grade to work with her mother. In 1936 Brownie met Robert Wise in Texas. They married and had one son. Wise was an abusive and violent alcoholic. They divorced in 1941. Brownie took on many jobs including demonstrating Stanley Home Goods products. Brownie was Stanley's top sales earner but was denied a management position based on her gender.

Brownie took a job at Tupperware and applied the party technique she used at Stanley to sell their products. Brownie would host parties in the home of a housewife. The housewives invited neighbors and friends. Brownie served food and drinks, then explained how leftovers could be stored in the tupperware. She "burped" the bowls' lids by removing air before sealing the lid. She threw bowls for attendees to catch showing the lids' tightness. Housewives bought Tupperware en mass and an American pop culture icon entered history.

Brownie rose to top sales person quickly. She recruited other women to sell Tupperware and created a female based sales force. By 1954 her sales team amounted to 20,000 people. She was made Vice President of Marketing. Tupperware moved their headquarters to Florida in the 1950s. Brownie helped designed the new sales complex. She became the public face of the company. She appeared on talk shows and was the first woman to appear on the cover of Business Week magazine. Earl Tupper resented the attention Brownie earned and fired her in 1958. She filed a wrongful termination lawsuit, but settled out of court for $30,000. Earl Tupper sold the company for millions, but as Browning was never given stock she did not profit from the sale.


While at Tupperware Brownie instituted Jubilee - a 4-day training conference. Each year Jubilee had a unique theme and games, entertainment, food and fun matched the theme. Top sales associates were awarded prizes like cars, couture clothing and handbags, and jewelry. Women who couldn't earn money at a job like their husbands could earn diamond rings as well as recognition for a job well done. Brownie Wise, though ousted from Tupperware, gave women dignity and snackers fresh junk food for days. The next time you need a midnight snack and reach for whatever storage container you find in the fridge, thank Brownie Wise.






SOURCES :

Blakemore, Erin. Tupperware Parties: Suburban Women’s Plastic Path to Empowerment. History.com, 1 March 2019.

Brownie Wise. Wikipedia.

Eschner, Kat. "The Story of Brownie Wise, the Ingenious Marketer Behind the Tupperware Party." Smithsonian Magazine, 10 April 2018.

Rothberg, Emma. Brownie Wise. National Women's History Museum. 


FURTHER MEDIA ~

BOOKS :

Life of the Party : The Remarkable Story of How Brownie Wise Built, and Lost, a Tupperware Party Empire ~ Bob Kealing


PODCASTS : 

Helm, Sally, host. "The Tupperware Queen." History This Week, History Channel, 26 June 2023. 



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