Halloween is just around the corner, so what better time to share a career resource that is bound to inspire gasps of horror and perhaps even send you off screaming in terror?  Oh yes, this one’s a nightmare, all right, but all wrapped up in a very pretty package!

Seconds after I finished my last post, Role Models – On Paper!, about a nifty new career resource, I got a blast-from-the-past reminder about a career resource from my childhood that I had managed to completely block from my memory, thank goodness!  A Mighty Girl  (a wonderful website that highlights books and movies that empower girls) posted on their Facebook page about What Shall I Be: The Exciting Career Game for Girls. FLASHBACK!!!!!

The object of the game was to be the first to “become a career girl.” Look at all the wonderful options and broad career choices that a girl could choose from: ballerina, nurse, model, airline hostess, teacher, or actress! Imagine the possibilities! The game helpfully included information about the education girls would need to enter these professions: ballet school, drama school, charm school, nursing school, airline training school, or, if you wanted to be a teacher, college.

What Shall I Be didn’t just suggest careers and let girls know what kind of training they would need, it also helped girls match up their skills and personality traits with each career:

Are you a slow thinker? Don’t worry, there’s always teaching!

And you thought the other game tokens were bad!

 Confession time: I am so old that I actually remember this game. Lots of my friends had it and I played it a number of times. I always wanted to be the actress because, in my opinion, the Juliet dress was amazing. The teacher was always everyone’s last choice because, really, her outfit? Yuck! Plus, who wanted to work in a school?

Being an actress fit my fashion sensibility much better than being someone who worked in a school. Hemlines were am important consideration in career decsion-making.

I am not, however, as old as this game may make me seem. Here is the version that was on store shelves when I was a kid:

Yeah, okay, it still makes me seem old! The prairie dress on the teacher made her profession seem somewhat more appealing, and the new package had a much cooler 1970s vibe, but the game itself was the same. Playing it was like looking at roadkill – you couldn’t quite make yourself look away, but it left you with kind of a sickening feeling.

Apparently there was also a version for boys, but I never heard of it until I went searching for images to share with you. What a discovery! Its content made the girls’ version even more belittling than it already was. The boys had far better (and more exciting) career choices: Statesman, Scientist, Athlete, Doctor, Engineer, and Astronaut. It was also understood that they had what it took to persevere through rigorous training; all of the career options required post-graduate study, except for the athlete, who had to go to college to achieve his dreams. The goal of the game for boys was to “be the first to achieve his career.” The active “achieve his career” is so different from the passive “become a career girl!”

I told you it was horrifying!

So there’s a career resource that you don’t want and money you don’t have to spend! Unless, of course, you’re looking for inspiration for a scary Mad Men-themed Halloween costume! I know what I’m going to be! Can you guess?

Toodles! Gotta run! It’s almost time for my Charm School class! And then I’ve got to get ready for my date with the Statesman! ::squeal!::

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Role Models – On Paper