CORPORATIONS: The Levi Experiment

In many ways San Francisco's Levi Strauss & Co., producer of the famous blue denim Levis, is a model employer. It pays top wages, and pioneered in hiring and promoting blacks. Yet Levi Strauss managers failed until recently to grasp the importance of the rising aspirations of women. Today, typical of many companies, Levi Strauss is striving to redress that lapse with a new program designed to give women the same job opportunities as men. Chairman Walter A. Haas Jr. was moved to act by pressures from the Government, from his conscience and from his customers. Levi Strauss sells...