A Gentlemen's agreement is an informal agreement between two parties. It may be written or verbal.

Negative Connotations

The term sometimes carries a negative connotation, suggestive of exclusionary decision-making by persons in power. And after interwar politics in Europe the phrase therefore has gained somewhat the connotation of a lightly made agreement easily broken.

Examples

• The Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907 was an informal agreement between the United States and Japan. Japan agreed not to issue passports to citizens for travel to the United States, thus eliminating immigration. In exchange, schools in San Francisco, California agreed not to discriminate against students of Japanese descent.
• The phrase occurs repeatedly in interwar political relations.
  • Britain signed a 'gentlemen's agreement' with Mussolini in 1937 over Naval access to the Mediterranean.
  • British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's discussions with Adolf Hitler culminated in the Munich Agreement of 1939 which is described in similar terms.
  • Hitler's agreement with the Austrian government in 1937 in which he guaranteed the country's independence.
• A gentlemen's agreement that once covered the City of Philadelphia by limiting the height of all buildings within the city to be no taller than the statue of William Penn that sits on top of Philadelphia City Hall. The Curse of Billy Penn is a coincidental anecdote in relation to the agreement.
• In baseball, the unwritten rules that formed the Baseball color line.
• Establishement of a corporate glass ceiling.
• An agreement between the US Army and US Air Force prohibiting the army from operating combat jet aircraft.

See Also

• Gentleman's Agreement is a 1947 movie directed by Elia Kazan starring Gregory Peck about anti-Semitism.
• Chinese Exclusion Act (United States)
• Memorandum of Understanding