Tupperware Brand Parties: The Empowerment of Women 1949-1958

 "If we build the people, they'll build the business." Brownie Wise

2021 Marks the 75th Anniversary of Tupperware Brand. I must admit I knew very little about Tupperware Brand until I fell in love with Mary-Jo Eagan, a Director at Tupperware Brand U.S. and Canada. It is not her title that impresses me. It is her devotion to the empowerment of Tupperware Brand saleswomen and colleagues over the past 30 years. As a researcher, I wanted to learn more about Mary-Jo's enthusiasm and commitment at Tupperware Brand. Simply because what is important to my wife, is important to me.

There is much written and availability of images regarding Tupperware Brand's history on the Internet. However, what appears to be lacking, is an appreciation of early newspaper and magazine marketing that contributed to the empowerment of women who chose to join the ranks of Tupperware Brand saleswomen, directors and managers. The 75th Anniversary of Tupperware Brand is an excellent time to acknowledge its vital and unique role regarding the empowerment of women.

In this essay I will add to the extant history by integrating Tupperware Brands' use of the Boston Globe classifieds and articles that promoted the early Tupperware Brand products. A window of time that reveals the growth of opportunities that fostered women's empowerment as business women during the nascent era 1949-1958. A time when the majority of post WWII women were stay-at-home wives and mothers.

Earl Silas Tupper invented Tupperware from black, inflexible pieces of polyethylene slag, a waste product of the oil refining process given to him by his supervisor at DuPont. Tupper purified the slag and molded it to create lightweight, non-breakable containers, cups, bowls, plates and even gas masks that were used in WWII. He later designed liquid-proof, airtight containers, lids, inspired by the secure seal of paint can lids. He referred to his invention as "Poly-T: Material of the Future" and he envisaged the total "Tupperization" of the American home.

Tupperware Brand's first product was released in 1946. The "Wonder Bowl" was widely praised by the burgeoning plastic industry which wanted quality plastic products in consumer's hands. It was also featured as an icon of modern design.

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The following year home magazines such as House Beautiful" hailed Tupperware Brand designs as "Fine Art for 39 Cents" with gorgeous textures reminiscent of jade and mother-of-pearl. But American housewives remained largely unimpressed. Department store displays and newspaper advertisements promoted Tupperware Brand as the answer to the dreams of the modern home maker, but still sales dwindled.

The Wonder Bowl may have earned design and industry accolades, but it wasn't selling in department stores, and neither were Tupperware Brand's other products. They were too different: plastic was an unfamiliar material in the home. The patented Tupper seal had to be"burped" before it would work: it was difficult for people accustomed to glass jars and ceramic containers to intuit how to use the seal.

In 1948, Brownie Wise started her own Tupperware Brand-selling business, "Patio Parties" and recruited women to sell for her. The sales strategy was rooted in the home-selling model pioneered by companies like Stanley Home Products, which used home sellers  to demonstrate novel products.

Typical Patio Party

But Wise put women front and center as sellers at parties, then known as "Poly-T Parties." It was at this time that Tupperware Brand's empowerment of women began. 

Instead of just a product demonstration, a Tupperware Brand party was a party, whose hostess was supported by a Tupperware Brand dealer (now known as a director)--an honored guest who could demonstrate the products and sell. Hostesses received merchandise as a thank you for providing their homes and social networks. 

June 5, 1949

By 1949, Wonder Bowls were flying out of the hands of Wise's sellers.

In 1951, Tupper hired Wise as his vice-president of marketing, an unprecedented position for women. She took charge of the newly created division of the company centered around a "the home party plan."

Tupper and Wise

Convinced by the success of direct selling, Tupper agreed to withdraw products from all department stores and retail outlets. The Tupperware party became the company's exclusive form of distribution and Brownie Wise began her amazing transition from housewife to leader of a multimillion-dollar enterprise.

At the iconic Tupperware Brand party, a well-dressed dealer (director) with practiced demonstration skills would show the hostess and her friends how to use this high-tech, colorful new kitchenware. She'd lead the group in dramatic party games, like tossing a sealed Wonder Bowl full of grape juice around the room to demonstrate the strength of its seal.

BrownieWise tossing a sealed Tupperware container 

Dealers had the support of the Tupperware Brand company and their regional dealer network, who would manage and encourage them to develop their demonstration skills. It was an era where women faculties were typically predisposition for nurturing and domesticity. In return, they were able to earn income and recognition: they sold products at retail prices, but Tupperware Brand only took only the wholesale price of an item.

The Tupperware Brand corporate culture offered an alternative to the patriarchal structures of conventional sales structures, which many women, completely alienated from the conventional workplace, wholeheartedly embraced. 

Tupperware Brand's marketing model, then and now, relies on social networks which means its high adaptable to a specific dealer's social circles and needs. That meant dealers included rural women, urban women, black and white women. A lot of these women were attracted not just by the opportunity to make money, but for the self-rhetoric Wise used to work with dealers.

1953 Boston Globe

In 1954, Brownie Wise became the first woman to be on the cover of Business Week. There were 20,000 people in the network of dealers, distributors, and managers. Technically, none of these people were employees of Tupperware Brand: they were private contractors who collectively acted as the infrastructure between the company and the consumer.

During the mid-1950s, as Tupperware Brand's sales soared, hitting $25 million in 1954 (more than $230 million in 2018's money), products like the Wonder Bowl, Ice-Tup popsicle molds and the Party Susan divided serving tray came to represent a new post-war lifestyle that revolved around at-home entertaining and patio parties. More and more women (and some men) became dealers and distributors, and not just white suburbanites.

In 1955, Wise's marketing frequently targeted women offering an opportunity to become financially and socially empowered.

April 29, 1955

April 30, 1955

May 3, 1955

During these years, Wise became the public face of Tupperware, appearing in women's magazines and business publications to tout Tupperware Brand and the business culture she created. Tupper himself didn't like making public appearances, so Wise stood solo in the limelight. 

October 14, 1956

Despite the astounding success of the Tupperware Brand enterprise, which received constant press coverage and design and business accolades, Tupper and Wise held widely differing approaches to the business. In 1954, Brownie Wise inaugurated the Tupperware Brand Homecoming Jubilee in Kissimmee, Florida. Tupper despised large gatherings of people and refused to attend the annual Homecoming Jubilees. These rallies, at which the country's top sellers received awards and gifts, still continue to this day. In addition to the United State rallies are held worldwide including Australia and Southern Africa.

Jubilee 1955

The network of dealers and distributers also acted as a support network for those within it. Much like today, if someone in the network needed help to succeed, such as someone to pick up merchandise, the culture of the network meant they could ask. Brownie Wise reigned over her Tupperware Brand dealers with increasingly flamboyant displays of charisma. It was Tupperware Brand's appeal to sociality and the valorization of domestic lives, in its objects, sales system and corporate culture that led to empowerment.

By 1958, although a prominent figure, she had to make up her own way of doing things, without peers or mentors, and she made mistakes along the way. She may have been over confident in handling Tupper. Possibly believing her own great press and not making him feel valued for continued innovation on the product side. As time went on, she and Tupper fought frequently over company strategy and management.

By the late 1950s, Tupper was looking to sell the company and he may have felt that it would be less attractive to sell with an outspoken woman at the helm of the sales end. In January 1958, he and the board of directors fired Wise, who did not have a formal contract. After taking them to court, Wise received a one-time payout of a year's salary, which was around $30,000. She went on to found and work at cosmetics companies that used the same kind of home party techniques, but none of them did all that well. Tupper sold the company in early 1958.

I have had many opportunities to learn and understand about Mary-jo's 31 years devotion to the Tupperware Brand. I have observed her commitment to the success of her business, the women who are her sales team members and her managers. She fosters their personal empowerment through education, training, motivation, health and friendship.

The recent COVID Pandemic did not slow Mary-Jo down at all. The energy that once went into driving thousands of miles a year to facilitate hostess' parties in homes has transitioned into Virtual Tupperware Brand Hostess Parties. Nowadays these virtual parties are not only in Massachusetts but throughout the United States. She hosts a virtual Cooking with Tupperware Brand MJ Style, as well as private raffles for her Tupperware Brand VIP team. These skills she generously promotes, encourages, provides training...empowering those she is responsible for. 

There are many in the Tupperware Brand family like Mary-Jo Eagan. There was a time when Tupperware Brand was depended upon daily newspapers and magazines for advertising...not any longer!  The 75th Anniversary is an excellent opportunity to celebrate that the Tupperware Brand still fosters the mantra of Brownie Wise, "If we build the people, they'll build the business."