How Tupperware parties empowered homebound suburban women

(Photo: Tupperware)

Karen Watters, from Michigan, was 18 years old, newly married and had a young child when she started selling Tupperware in the 1970s. 

"I couldn't even get a credit card back then. The bank wouldn't give it to me even though I was the one working. Those were different times for women," she told DW. Before 1974, married women in the US could not apply for a credit card in their own name. 

She hosted gatherings for her friends and acquaintances known as "Tupperware parties," earning a commission for everything she sold. She then used the money to help her husband get through university.

"He was studying electrical engineering, and I bought all of his tools. He got all his stuff from the money I made from selling Tupperware. And we needed the money."

For Watters, like so many other women, selling the sealable plastic containers was a way to help her family get by. The Tupperware party, a new sales approach introduced in the 1950s, empowered thousands of women as they started their own businesses.

The company has now announced its bankruptcy, but that doesn't lessen its relevance to history and how it helped many homemakers become businesswomen.

A major phenomenon

The durable, sealable plastic containers were created by Earl Tupper, a businessman and chemist from New Hampshire who discovered a way to make flexible plastic out of an industrial byproduct that sealed as tightly as a paint can. In 1946, Tupper "had a spark of inspiration while creating molds at a plastics factory," according to the company's website.

But when his containers initially debuted, they didn't catch on as the entrepreneur had hoped. Homemakers were skeptical of the cheap construction and oily texture and confused about the need to "burp" the containers to let out the air so they would seal properly.

It took an army of amateur salespeople, primarily suburban women, to help the brand catch on. Thousands of women in the US, and eventually worldwide, started their own businesses selling the products at home gatherings known as Tupperware parties. The phenomenon swept across the US and peaked in the 1950s and 60s.

Largely responsible for the success of the Tupperware empire was Brownie Wise, a single mother with little formal education whom Tupper took on as his vice president and head of sales. A marketing genius with a knack for sales, she helped revolutionize the brand with her unique marketing methods.

Wise had formerly worked for a cleaning product company called Stanley Home. She hosted what the company called "home parties," gatherings of housewives and their friends to sell products. Wise quickly saw a market for Tupperware at such events, too.

Her enlivening product demonstrations, which included fun party games and throwing the containers across the room to show they didn't break, educated buyers about the product along the way. At the company's Florida headquarters, Wise trained other women in her sales methods, creating handbooks and introducing lavish sales incentives to get more saleswomen on board, and soon the product was taking off.

To encourage their salesforce, the company devised creative promotions in which sellers competed for "everything from new electric irons to a trip to Europe with Brownie Wise," as described in an article by US public broadcaster PBS.

By the mid-1950s, Wise was the company's icon and the first woman to be featured on the cover of Business Week. She also appeared in popular magazines such as Cosmopolitan and Women's Home Journal.

From homemaker to entrepreneur

The socioeconomic conditions of the 1950s were perfect for the success of this marketing strategy. Women who had entered the job market during World War II had been pushed out and were now expected to stay at home with the kids during the baby boom.

Selling Tupperware was a way to make an income for women whose husbands didn't want them to work outside the home — as well as a way for homebound suburban women to escape domestic routines and socialize.

The hostess of a party would invite a Tupperware salesperson to come to their house and in exchange receive free Tupperware products, while the salesperson would earn a commission based on how many products were sold.

Therefore, the Tupperware parties symbolically impacted and embodied the culture of an era on different levels. They allowed housewives to gain autonomy by becoming consultants, managers and distributors of the product. The parties felt subversive in a way. At the same time, the business model reinforced the idea that a woman's actual place was at home. 

The end of burping bowls

Despite the narrative of female empowerment behind the rise of the brand — with Brownie Wise celebrated as one of the first women to "lean in" — the story didn't end well for the pioneering businesswoman. She was ousted by the company she helped build in 1958 after a disagreement with Tupper, not even receiving stock.

The same year, Tupper sold the company, calling it Tupperware Home Parties, to Rexall Drug Company for $16 million (€14.3 million) and followed his brand's success from Costa Rica, where he retired.

Indeed, the business model saw the products quickly expand into Europe, Asia and Latin America.

Since then, the brand has continued to primarily be sold the same way, via Tupperware parties, as opposed to brick and mortar shops.

New designs have long been part of the brand strategy: Tupperware has received more than 280 design awards for its product designs and functionality since 1982.

Yet, the brand has now filed for bankruptcy, citing a decreased interest in their products and shrinking profit margins. Among other reasons, Tupperware didn't manage to appeal as much to younger consumers. 

Still, from cosmetics to sex toys, many other companies have meanwhile adopted the party method to sell products, modeled on Tupperware's success. Amid the rise of the gig economy, independent direct sellers are now flooded with opportunities to choose from: There are 7.3 million in the US as of 2023, according to the Direct Selling Association.

While it may be the end of an era, Tupperware remains embedded in millions of people's lives and woven into the history of the 20th century.