Bachelor Girl (39 page)

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Authors: Betsy Israel

Tags: #Social Science, #Women's Studies, #History, #United States, #20th Century, #Media Studies

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Modern conduct guides in all earnestness:

Ellen Fein and Sherrie Schneider,
The Rules: Time Tested Secrets for Capturing the Heart of Mr. Right
(New York: Warner, 1995).

Modern conduct guides with attitude and irony:

Cynthia Rowley and Ilene Rosenzweig,
Swell: A Girl’s Guide to the Good Life
(New York: Warner, 1999).

Periodicals—1980s/1990s–present:

Christine Doudna with Fern McBride, “Where Are the Men for the Women at the Top?”
Savvy
(Feb. 1980); Peter Davis, “The $100,000 a Year Woman,”
Esquire
special issue on women (June 1984). The author, in correspondence with editor, searches for a New Type who earns more than the average man—what is that like? What is she like? He finds her. Somehow convinces her to let him follow her through life for several months, and to interview her bosses, colleagues, ex-husband. She takes him on adriving trip with her parents, and gives him access to her diary; she comes off after all this exhaustive day-in-the-life attempt at finding “new pathos” as a demanding, difficult but truly remarkable, memorable person; Janice Harayda “Unwed Women Needn’t—and Don’t—Despair,”
Wall Street Journal
(June 27, 1986); Claudia Wallis, “Women Face the ’90s”
Time
(cover, Dec. 4, 1989); Richard Cohen, “What About Alice?”
Washington Post,
(July 28, 1991); David R. Williams, David T. Takeuchi, Russell K. Adair, “Marital Status and Psychiatric Disorders Among Blacks and Whites,”
Journal of Health and Social Behaviour,
vol. 33 (June 1992); “Advance Report of Final Divorce Statistics, 1989 and 1990” (The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1995); Torri Minton, “Road to Modern Romance Is Paved with Potholes,”
San Francisco Chronicle
(Feb. 12, 1993); Florence King, “Spinsterhood Is Powerful,”
National Review
(July 19, 1993); John Tierney, “Picky, Picky, Picky,”
New York Times Magazine
(Feb. 1995); Cynthia Heimel, “Solo Contendre,”
Playboy
(Feb. 1995); Judy Abel, “Sisters: The New Generation Gap: Twentysomethings Are Choosing Mom’s Family Values and Not Their Siblings’ Career Paths,”
New York Post
(Aug. 6, 1996); Katie Roiphe, “The In dependent Woman (and Other Lies)”
Esquire
(Feb. 1997); “Why Marriage Is Hot Again,” special section,
Redbook
(Sept. 24, 1997); “American Marriage Today,” special supplement,
Brides Magazine: The Heart of the Bridal Market
(Sept. 26, 1997); Lois Smith Brady, “Ready to Propose? Make it Short, Sweet and Real,”
New York Times
(Oct. 1997); Elizabeth Cohen, “They Don’t Want Kids: Why Women Are Opting out of Motherhood” (with a quiz: “Should You Become a Mom?”) (May 14, 1998); Sarah Bernard, “Early to Wed,”
New York
magazine (June 16, 1997); Jim Yardley “Going on Full Alert for a Dream Dress,”
New York Times
(Feb. 1, 1998), on the frenzy at Kleinfeld’s, the famed Brooklyn wedding gown emporium.

Novels

Gail Parent,
A Sign of the Eighties
(New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1987); Margaret Diehl,
Men
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988); Alice Hoffman,
Seventh Heaven
(New York: Ballantine, 1990); Lorrie Moore,
Like Life
(New York: Knopf, 1990) and
Birds of America
(New York: Knopf, 1998); Susannah Moore,
In the Cut
(New York: Knopf, 1995); Can dace Bushnell,
Sex and the City,
collected essays (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1996); Helen Fielding,
Bridget Jones’s Diary
(New York, MacMillan, 1998).

Note: Entries in this index, carried over verbatim from the print edition of this title, are unlikely to correspond to the pagination of any given e-book reader. However, entries in this index, and other terms, may be easily located by using the search feature of your e-book reader.

 

“Aborting Matron, The,” 39
n

abortions, 31, 38–39, 101, 109, 114, 132, 151, 202

Abrams, Charles, 220

Abrams, Sophie, 68

actresses, 93–94, 125, 152

in flapper films, 130–33, 137

in wartime films, 167, 168

Addams, Jane, 36, 115, 116

Ade, George, 114

adoptions, 202, 235

advertising, 125–26, 183, 196, 267

beauty, 191–93

classified, gender segregation of, 152, 178, 229

flappers in, 129

of hair dye, 191–92

in 1960s, 218

WACs in, 169

After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie
(Rhys), 8, 164

Afternoon of Unmarried Life, The
(Penny), 24

Alcott, Bronson, 34, 37, 44

Alcott, Louisa May, 26, 33–34, 37, 47, 270

life of, 40, 44–45

Alger, William R., 30

Alice Adams
(Tarkington), 102

All That Heaven Allows,
198–99

Ally McBeal,
1, 256–57, 258, 263

Amazons, 37

“American Woman, Her Changing Role: Worker, Homemaker, Citizen, The” 175

Ann Vickers
(Lewis), 163

Anthony, Susan B., 26, 31, 33, 45, 100

Anything but Love
(Hawes), 174

Arbuckle, John, 105

Auerbach, Nina, 2

Austen, Jane, 24, 32, 48

Autumn Leaves,
179

 

Baby Boom,
249

baby brides, 251–56, 258

Baby Face,
157

bachelor girls, 107–12, 114, 119, 127

see also
bohemians Baez, Joan, 218

Baker, Russell, 238

Banning, Margaret Culkin, 147

Barbizon Hotel, 106–7, 194–96, 221

Barnard College, 152

Barton, Clara, 33, 163, 270

life of, 40, 46–47

Barton, Mary, 33

Beat generation, 204–6

Bedlow, Harry, 70–71

bedrest, 162

Beecher, Catherine, 27–28, 61

Benjamin, Walter, 85

Bennett, James Gordon, 63

Bernard, Sara, 253

Best of Everything, The
(Jaffe), 206

Bewitched,
17, 218

black women, 166–67, 226

Blondell, Joan, 153, 158–59

bobby-soxers, 178

bohemians, 9, 74, 107–12, 114, 123, 127, 164, 173, 204

critics of, 109–10

in Greenwich Village, 108–9

lifestyle of, 110–11

in literature, 108–9, 110, 111–12

Bonjour Tristesse
(Sagan), 185

“Boston marriages,” 29

Bow, Clara, 97, 131

Bowery boys (“b’hoys”), 72–73, 75, 140

Bowery gals (“g’hals”), 56–57, 70–75, 127, 229

Bowery Theater, 75

Braddon, Mary Elizabeth, 48

brank (gossip’s bridle), 38

Bread Givers, The
(Yezierska), 67, 69

Breakfast at Tiffany’s
(Capote), 186

Breathless,
186

Bridget Jones’s Diary,
1, 256–58, 263

Brinkley, Nell, 113

Brontë, Charlotte, 20

Brooks, Louise, 97, 130–31

Brown, Helen Gurley, 212–13, 258

Bryant, Louise, 115

Bryn Mawr College, 26, 119

Buck, Pearl, 213

Bugbee, Emma, 154

Bundle of Letters to Busy Girls, A
(Dodge), 96

Buntline, Ned, 77–78

But You Are Young
(Lawrence), 141

 

Capote, Truman, 186

Cardozo, Caitlin, 253

Cassandra
(Nightingale), 42

Cathy
cartoon books, 247

censorship, film, 132

censuses, 19–21, 23, 58, 172, 188, 208–9, 214

Chambers-Schiller, Lee Virginia, 25–26

Chanel, Coco, 128

Chaplin, Eliza, 26

childbirth, 22, 31, 34

child-free lifestyle, 246–47, 261–62

Christmas in Connecticut,
249

Cinderella’s stepsisters, 18

City Is the Frontier, The
(Abrams), 220

City of Women
(Stansell), 58, 71, 89

Civil War, 23
n,
28, 45, 46–47, 90, 114

Clements, Marcelle, 8

Cobbe, Frances Power, 53

Colby, Anita, 193

college education, 26, 32, 128–29, 143, 152, 165

in Depression era, 151, 161–63, 164, 178–79

of new women, 114, 115, 116, 117, 119, 127

in 1950s, 185, 188, 190

in 1960s, 210–11, 222, 223

communal living, 33–40, 53, 223, 224

abortion plots in, 38–39

feminist objections to, 37–38

in Greek mythology, 37

as psychologically unhealthy, 39–40

religious, 34–35

in settlement houses, 35–37, 143

Company She Keeps, The
(McCarthy), 151
n

conduct guides, 174–75, 200–202, 270

contraceptives, 109, 114, 152

condoms, 132, 151

diaphragms, 151, 211

laws against, 31

the Pill, 209–11

corn girls, 66

Cowen, Elise, 204, 205–6

Crawford, Joan, 130, 137, 140, 179, 197, 206

credit cards, 234

Crestell, Nicholas, 22

Crowe, Cameron, 106

Curie, Marie, 40

 

Damaged Goods,
123

“Dame, the,” 16

Dangerous,
157–58

Daughters of the American Revolution, 175

Davis, Bette, 13, 157–59, 177

Day, Benjamin, 63

Day, Doris, 199, 231

Days of Wine and Roses,
209

Dayton, Abram, 72–73, 75

Dempster, Carole, 131

department stores, 85, 99

see also
shop girls, shoppies

depression, in married vs. single women, 250

Depression era, 150–64, 178

college education in, 151, 161–63, 164, 178–79

contraceptives in, 151, 152

female journalists in, 152–53, 154

films of, 153, 155, 156–59

heartless women in, 156–59, 172, 249

homeless women in, 154–56, 159

images of falling apart in, 163–64

job stealers in, 150, 152, 156

laws against married women working in, 150

literature in, 151, 153, 163–64

marriage rate in, 151

new women in, 159–60

office workers in, 152, 164

starvation in, 152

teenagers in, 160–61

young women’s frustration in, 159–64

diaphragms, 151, 211

Dickens, Charles, 17

Didion, Joan, 215–16

diets, fad, 136

diPrima, Diane, 204

divorce, 132, 209, 211, 212, 213, 235, 250

laws on, 27, 109

rates of, 116, 170, 175–76, 209

divorcèe paranoia, 176–77

Dodge, Grace, 96–97

Dodge, Mary, 28

domestic feminists, 27–28

domestic servants, 55, 58, 60–61, 73

Douglas, Ann, 127

Dreiser, Theodore, 53, 59

dress reform, 90–91, 114

Driscoll, Marjorie C., 154

drug addicts, 230, 241

Du Maurier, George, 110

 

Eastman, Crystal, 146–47

education, 25, 26–27, 28, 29, 32, 114, 133, 144

divorce rate and, 116

of shop girls, 97

see also
college education

Eliot, Charles W., 116

Eliot, George, 48

Ellington, George, 77

Ellis, Havelock, 143

Emma
(Austen), 48

Employments of Women
(Penny), 61

Equal Credit Opportunity Act, 234

Equal Rights Amendment, 168

Ethan Frome
(Wharton), 19–20

eugenics, 142

Expedition of Humphry Clinker, The
(Smollett), 16–17

 

factory girls, 9, 56, 58–60, 61, 68, 73, 77, 79, 83, 85, 86, 87–88, 91, 94, 97, 129

Farmer’s Almanac (1869), 23

Farnham, Marynia, 172–73

Fates, 37

Fawcett, Edgar J., 65

Feminine Mystique, The
(Friedan), 209, 216

feminists, 8, 19
n,
33, 36, 37–38, 63, 93, 114, 116–17, 173, 236, 247

domestic, 27–28

of Heterodoxy, 117

politico-, 50

ridicule of, 117

second wave, 118

upper-class, 108

Femmes savantes, Les
(Molière), 16

Fielding, Henry, 17–18

Final Payments
(Gordon), 224

Finney, Ruth, 154

flappers, 126–28, 142, 164

in advertisements, 129

clothing of, 127, 138

as demographic group, 128

era embodied by, 128

in films, 130–33, 135, 137

hairstyles of, 127, 130–31, 136

“It” as trait of, 130–31

men driven into ministry by, 137

as morally deranged, 136–37

new products used by, 128

origin of term, 129–30

problematic mothers of, 133–34

purchasing power of, 128–29

reportage on, 133–36

second-stage, 136–37, 138

sexual behavior of, 131–33, 134–36

siren as replacement for, 137–38

spinsterism as threat to, 135–36

“treating” of, 135

unhealthy lifestyle attributed to, 136

Flexner, Eleanor, 130
n

Folks, The
(Suckow), 108–9, 163–64

folliculitis, 136

Fonda, Jane, 218, 230

Foster, George, 65–66, 74, 75, 88

Franks, Lucinda, 230

Franny and Zooey
(Salinger), 198

Frederick, Pauline, 156

free love, 35, 114, 141

Friedan, Betty, 184, 209, 216

friends, special, 28–30, 212–13, 262–63

Friendships of Women, The
(Alger), 30

frigidity, 142, 144, 145, 172, 198

Fuller, Margaret, 30, 63

 

Garfield,
247

Gaskell, Elizabeth, 48

Genovese, Kitty, 228

G’Hals of New York, The
(Buntline), 77–78

GI Bill, 186

Gibson, Charles Dana, 124

Gibson girls, 9, 124–26, 129

Gilliam, Dorothy, 226

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins, 34, 47–48, 115, 140, 160

Girl Terms Act, 204

Gissing, George, 48–50

Glyn, Elinor, 130

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 30

Gordon, Mary, 224

Graeae, 37

“Great Reprieve, The” (Didion), 215–16

Greek mythology, 37

Greeley, Horace, 63, 64

Greene, Gael, 194–96

Greenwich Village, 108–9, 117, 128, 163, 201, 205

Greer, Rebecca, 255

Gregg, W. R., 20–21

Griffith, D. W., 131

Grimké, Sarah, 2, 26

Group, The
(McCarthy), 151

 

hair bows, huge, 119

hair dye, 136, 191–92

hairstyles, 232

banged, 69, 110

of flappers, 127, 130–31, 136

Haldane, Charlotte, 143

Hall, Stanley G., 116, 117–18

Hapgood, Hutchins, 63, 91

Harland, Marian, 51–52

Harlow, Jean, 141
n

Hartmann, Susan, 169–70

Hawes, Elizabeth, 174

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 17, 38

heads of household, 208–9, 234–35, 239

Heape, Walter, 144

heartless women, 156–59, 172, 249

Herland
(Gilman), 34

Herodotus, 37

Herrick, Genevieve Forbes, 154

Heterodoxy, 117

Hickok, Lorena, 154

Hoffe, Sally, 222, 223

Hoffert, Emily, 227–28

Hoffman, Alice, 176

Hoffman, Carol A., 229

Holding Their Own
(Scharf), 160

holidays, 260–61

homeless women, 154–56, 159

Hospital Sketches
(Alcott), 45

“Hot Corn: Life Scenes in New York” (Robinson), 66

Howe, Marie Jenny, 117

Howells, William Dean, 64

How I Became Hettie Jones
(Jones), 205

How to Be Happy While Single
(Van Ever), 174–75

Humphreys, Mary Gay, 87–88, 96, 97, 105

Hungry Hearts
(Yezierska), 67

Hutchins, Grace, 154

 

immigrants, 33, 36, 56–57, 62, 109, 122

immigrant working girls, 9, 56–84, 96–97

American style embraced by, 60, 66–69

assimilation of, 60, 67

banged hairstyles of, 69

beauty advice sought by, 68–69

Bowery gals, 56–57, 70–75, 127, 229

clothing of, 61, 67–68, 74–75

daily life of, 78–84

domestic servants, 55, 58, 60–61, 73

factory girls, 9, 56, 58–60, 61, 68, 73, 77, 79, 83, 85, 86, 87–88, 91, 94, 97

family homes of, 57–58, 66, 67, 75–76

fantasy names of, 10

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