Bachelor Girl (40 page)

in films, 66, 67

Irish, 55, 58, 60, 72–73

living quarters of, 58, 66–67, 79–80

male abusiveness risked by, 70–72

as moral calamity, 57

pay handed over by, 58, 70, 140

in penny press, 62–66

pidgin dialects of, 87–88

prostitution of, 58, 59, 74, 75, 78, 83, 94

salaries of, 76–77

strikes staged by, 59

“treating” of, 70–71

working conditions of, 58–61, 81

Improvised Woman, The
(Clements), 8

Independent,
50, 104–5, 108, 115, 122

“Independent Woman and Other Lies, The” (Roiphe), 255–56

Internet, 244–45

intersexuality, 142–43

inversion, sexual, 143

“It,” 130–31

It
(film), 97, 131, 132

Ivory Soap girl, 126, 129

Jacob A. Stamler,
105

Jaffe, Rona, 206

James, Henry, 23, 114

Jane Eyre
(Brontë), 20

Janeway, Elizabeth, 39

Jarman, Rufus, 185

Jennie Gerhardt
(Dreiser), 53

Job, The
(Lewis), 146

job stealers, 150, 152, 156

Johnson, Joyce Glassman, 200, 204, 205

Jones, Hettie Cohen, 204, 205

journalists, female, 152–53, 154

June Bride,
177

Kate and Leopold,
263–64

Katz, Susan Leslie, 16

Keller, Helen, 40

Kellogg, Elenore, 154

Kerouac, Jack, 181, 204, 205

Kinsey Report on Female Sexuality,
188

Kirk, Virginia, 134–35

Kitty Foyle
(Morley), 55, 101–2, 103–4, 106–7

Klemesrud, Judy, 227, 229

Knudson, Kneith, 144

“Labor in New York” (Foster), 66

Lady Audley’s Secret
(Braddon), 48

Lambert, Eleanor, 191

Larcom, Lucy, 26, 31, 33

Lauder, Estée, 191

Laughlin, Clara E., 86

Lawrence, Josephine, 141

laws, 22
n,
77, 120

abortion, 31, 109

on contraceptives, 31, 109

credit, 234

divorce, 27, 109

draft, 170

Girl Terms Act, 204

inheritance, 48

Mann Act, 124

marriage, 27

on married women holding jobs, 150

suffrage, 36, 45, 119, 126

on women’s smoking, 114–15

on workplace restrictions, 169

lesbians, 10–11, 28–29, 188, 249

mannish, 143

in sexology, 143–44, 145

WACs as, 169

LeSueur, Meridel, 155

Letters to a Business Girl
(Saunders), 99–100, 102–3

Letter to Three Wives, A
177

Lewis, Sinclair, 146, 163

Liberty: A Better Husband
(Chambers-Schiller), 25–26

Linton, Eliza Lynn, 38

living arrangements, 58, 66–67, 79–80, 89

all-girl hotels, 106–7, 194–96

latchkey, 104–7

in 1960s, 208–9, 212, 214, 220, 221, 223–24, 225

see also
communal living

Long Day, The
(Richardson), 55, 78–83, 84

Looking for Mr. Goodbar,
8, 230–31

love letters, female, 29–30

Lowell girls, 31, 83

Luce, Clare Booth, 39–40

Lundberg, Ferdinand, 172–73

McCarthy, Mary, 151

MacDonald, Dwight, 199

macho career woman, 248–49

MacLaine, Shirley, 185

Macpherson, Annie, 35

McPherson, Scott, 52–53

Main Street
(Lewis), 146

Mann Act, 124

Mannequin,
140

mannish lesbians, 143

man shortages, 171, 172, 176, 183, 237–38, 250

Marjorie Morningstar,
186, 198

marriage, 2, 3, 102, 115–16, 129, 248

in British common law, 27

dangers of, 31, 89

Depression era and, 151, 161–62

domestic feminists’ view of, 27–28

as duty, 26–27

flappers and, 129, 135, 136, 137

of immigrant working girls, 62

inequality in, 28

maiden name retained in, 29, 74

male drinking and, 31

male preferences and, 115, 119

of new women, 115, 119

new women’s rejection of, 115–16, 117

as 1950s norm, 183–86, 187, 188, 189–96, 206, 209, 252

in 1960s, 208, 209, 211, 222, 223, 232

in 1970s, 234

in 1980s and 1990s, 250, 251–56

as oppressive institution, 27

in postwar period, 170–71, 175

rates of, 30, 116, 151, 184

sex in, 142, 145

shop girls and, 89, 97

single blessedness vs., 25–30, 31–32, 34, 35, 40, 41, 42, 45, 53

upper-class women and, 18–19

married working women, 150, 215, 247

Marvin’s Room
(McPherson), 52–53

Mary Tyler Moore Show, The,
233–34, 258

Mead, Margaret, 191

Meehan, Diana, 227

Meet Millie,
197

Menehin, Thomas, 155

Millay, Edna St. Vincent, 101, 115

Miller, Jean Baker, 239

Miller’s New York as It Is,
72

Millet, Kate, 237
n

Mills, C. Wright, 103

Milton, John, 27

Minister’s Charge, The
(Howells), 64

Minor Characters
(Johnson), 200, 205

Miss America pageants, 132

Modern Woman: The Lost Sex
(Farnham and Lundberg), 172–73

Molière, 16

Moore, Colleen, 113, 130–31, 133

Morley, Christopher, 55, 101–102, 103–4, 107

Moskowitz, Belle, 121

murders, single girl, 227–31, 240–41

Murphy Brown,
248–49

Muses, 37

Muzzy, Aretemus B., 26

Nashoba commune, 35

neurotic husband hunters, 157, 172–75

conduct guides for, 174–75

as half a human unit, 173–74, 186

new dependency, 140–41, 150

new spinsters, 29, 138–47

families as financial drain on, 140–41

lifestyle of, 138–39

limitations of, 145–47

as socially pathetic, 145

see also
sexology

new women, 9, 114–38

causes supported by, 159–60

college education of, 114, 115, 116, 117, 119, 127

criminal tendencies of, 121

feminist meetings organized by, 116–17

as Gibson girls, 9, 124–26, 129

marriage rejected by, 115–16, 117

marriages of, 115, 119

meaning of term, 114–15

popular vs. reformist, 118–21, 134

purchasing power of, 125–26

sexology of, 117–18

smoking by, 114–15, 116, 130, 132, 133, 134

tea dances of, 120–21, 127

white slavery and, 122–24, 125

see also
flappers

New York in Slices
(Foster), 65

Nightingale, Florence, 25, 26, 270

calling of, 35, 41, 43

life of, 40–44, 47–48

marriage as viewed by, 25, 42

marriage proposals rejected by, 31–32 1950s, 6, 179, 181–206, 233, 237, 254

Barbizon hotel in, 194–96

Beat generation in, 204–6

beauty advertising in, 191–93

birthrate in, 184, 188

breasts emphasized in, 192

college education in, 185, 188, 190

competitors of wives in, 189–90

conduct guides in, 200–202

European travel in, 186

films of, 186, 193, 197–200

hair dye in, 191–92

husband-hunting techniques in, 190–93

ideal attributes in, 191

lifestyle of, 182–83

marriage as norm in, 183–86, 187, 188, 189–96, 206, 209, 252

marriage rate in, 184

moving to cities in, 186–90, 200–206

relocating surplus women in, 188–89

sex in, 188, 198–204

sexual double standard in, 199–200

television in, 173, 183, 196–99

“togetherness” in, 186, 209, 220, 252 1960s, 208–32

adoptions in, 235

alarmed reactions in, 213

anonymity in, 220

autonomous girl in, 211–14

available careers in, 214, 215, 217–19, 221, 229

films in, 209

living arrangements in, 208–9, 212, 214, 220, 221, 223–24, 225

moving to cities in, 215–17, 220

the Pill in, 209–11

rate of change in, 232

reportage in, 218
n,
219, 221, 225–27

sex in, 210–13, 222–23

single girl murders in, 227–31, 240–41

single parents in, 222, 223, 225

singles industry in, 220–21

singles scene in, 219–22

spinsters eulogized in, 214–15

television in, 218, 226–27

1970s, 229–41, 256

changing attitudes in, 232–37

dangers in, 229–31, 240–41

drug addiction in, 241

films in, 230–32

financial inequities in, 239

lifestyles in, 234–35

psychological problems in, 239–40

public mudslinging in, 237–39

reportage in, 236–37

sardonic humor in, 231

sex in, 231–32

shopping bag ladies in, 241

shortage of desirable men in, 237–38

single parents in, 235

singles scene in, 240

television in, 233–34

women’s movement in, 208, 233, 234, 236, 251

1980s and 1990s, 237, 247–56

baby brides in, 251–56, 258

biological clock in, 247, 250–51

depression in, 250

films in, 249

housework in, 254

incompetence with children in, 249–50

safety sought in, 255, 258

sex in, 250

shortage of desirable men in, 250

television in, 248–49

weddings in, 253, 254, 255

Nixon, Pat, 236

Notes on Nursing
(Nightingale), 47

Novak, Kim, 197, 203

Odd Women, The
(Gissing), 48–50

office workers, 9, 19, 97–104, 130, 165, 214

advice guides for, 99–100

business schools for, 101–2

in Depression era, 152, 164

free-time activities of, 101–2, 103–4

in 1960s, 214, 215, 219

number of, 103

strategies of, 104

as suspected socialists, 100–101

working conditions of, 98

O’Harro, Mike, 220

old maids, 16–18, 21, 22, 25, 53, 212, 214

bad teeth of, 17, 18, 139

“One Old Maid” (Harland), 51–52

Only a Shopgirl
(Sterling), 94

On the Vindication of the Rights of Woman
(Wollstonecraft), 38

Oregon Land Donation Act, 22
n

“out work,” 18, 57

Pabst, Charles, 136

Parent, Gail, 231

Parkhurst, Genevieve, 160

Parsons, Talcott, 186
n

Pauline religious order, 34–35

Peiss, Kathy, 70

Penny, Virginia, 61

penny press, 56, 62–66

personal-advice columns in, 68–69

urban sketch in, 63–64

Persuasion
(Austen), 24

Pickford, Mary, 98

Pill, the, 209–11

Playboy,
192, 193, 243–44

Polykoff, Shirley, 191–92

Pope, Alexander, 17

Porter, Sylvia, 213–14

postwar period, 169–79

assertive women in, 171, 185

bobby-soxers in, 178

college class of 1934 in, 178–79

divorce rate in, 170, 175–76

divorcée paranoia in, 176–77

films in, 177–78, 179

GI Bill in, 186

majority gender in, 171–72

man shortage in, 171, 172, 176, 183

workforce in, 169–70

see also
neurotic husband hunters

Power, Susan C., 69

Private Secretary,
197

prostitutes, prostitution, 31, 32, 105, 107, 130, 168, 204

earnings of, 77