The women who built Betty Crocker

In 1921, Gold Medal Flour featured a puzzle advertisement on the back of The Saturday Evening Post inviting consumers to send in the completed puzzle to receive a free Gold Medal Flour pincushion in return.

But Washburn-Crosby, our predecessor company in Minneapolis, Minnesota, didn’t just receive the completed puzzles; they were flooded with thousands of baking questions from consumers.

The Advertising Department decided they needed a female persona to respond to the questions.

And that is how Betty Crocker was born.

The name Crocker came from a recently retired company director and Betty was chosen simply because it sounded friendly.

What happened next is a story of women, who in many ways were ahead of their time. Women who created, embodied and led Betty Crocker into the future.