By Carol Agate
It seems that 30 years later the battle to end gender discrimination in laundries has not been won (“Taking it to the cleaners,” page 1, May 14). It was that long ago that I represented a flight attendant who had to pay more to clean her shirts than the men did even though the size and style were identical. The launderers claimed that the women’s had to be hand ironed because they were smaller. We obtained women’s shirts that were larger than men’s shirts, and found the same price differences. Now the excuse was that women are fussier so their “blouses” had to be hand laundered.
I see the photo of a price poster attached to your article shows “dress shirt, $3.89 & up” and “blouse, $4.98 & up.” It seems they are still justifying a price differential by calling women’s shirts “blouses,” when the only real difference is which direction they button.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 22, 2008. Read the original PDF.