6. Her Salespeople Were All Women
The vast majority of salespeople in the early 1900s were men, a trend which continued for decades. However, Walker wisely believed that women would respond better to pitches for beauty products that came from people of the same gender who actually used the products. This idea led Walker to develop a workforce that, at its peak, was comprised of over 20,000 women in the United States, Costa Rica, Panama, Cuba, Haiti, and Jamaica.
Walker also believed in the importance of carefully training her employees on the products they would be selling. She established a beauty school in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, named Lelia college after her daughter, to train her “hair culturists,” i.e., salespeople. Additional beauty schools were opened in Indianapolis, Indiana and Harlem, New York. These schools taught Black women how to style their hair and use the Walker line of products.
The door-to-door saleswomen of Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing were given a uniform of a black skirt and white blouse to provide them with a uniform appearance, not unlike the uniformed beauty salespeople of Sephora today. They were also given black bags in which to carry samples and the products. One can imagine that women in predominantly Black neighborhoods would have been excited to see a woman in this uniform approaching their doors!