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Levi Strauss is also working to upgrade some office jobs that are now held by women. In the past year, 15 secretaries have been raised to administrative assistants—and not in name only. They allocate department budgets, make periodic changes in the size of salesmen's territories and investigate the causes of canceled orders. Indeed, top management reasons that many executives can do without secretaries; some are being phased out by promotion or attrition. The company has also liberalized its maternity-leave policy. In the past, women who left had no guarantee that they would get their jobs back. Now they can take up to 60 days' leave and be assured that their old posts will be waiting for them; Borrelli says that most women find this arrangement adequate.
For all its moderately bright beginnings, Levi Strauss's experiment has yet to resolve some problems. Upgrading and training secretaries for the new higher-paying administrative posts is an added company expense.
In Levi Strauss's sales and distribution departments, transfers are considered part of the job, but married women find it tough to relocate because their husbands will not leave their jobs. Beyond that, Levi Strauss, like many other companies, may have trouble meeting the new job demands of competing groups of activists. Says Borrelli: "There just aren't that many job openings. We are under pressure to hire women, blacks, Chicanos and Viet Nam veterans. I told our chairman that about 80% of our new managerial positions in the next five years could well be filled with non-males or non-WASPS. If you are a woman, a college graduate and a minority group member, you really have it made."