Table of Contents

Introduction, by Miriam S. Gogol
Part I: Naturalism and the Working Woman
“The Female Domestic in Naturalistic Fiction,” by Miriam S. Gogol
“Sister Carrie, Fashion and the Working Woman in American Realism,” by Irene Gammel
Part II: The “New Woman”
“Women Doctors in Henry James and William Dean Howells,” by Lara Hubel
“Women, Work and Cross-Class Alliances in the Fiction of Charlotte Perkins Gilman” by Nancy Von Rosk
“Naturalism and the New Woman in Ellen Glasgow’s Barren Ground: “How Hard She Had Worked!” by Jessica Schubert McCarthy
Part III: Race, Sex, and Class
“Work, race, and the performance of gender in Ann Petry’s The Street” by Jochem Riesthuis
Part IV: Working Women in Drama and Film
“Feminism, Sentimentality and Realism in Rachel Crothers’ Working-Women Plays” by Anna Andes
“Career Women in 1940s Cinema: The Heroine as Executive Editor,” by Pedro Ponce

About the Author

Miriam S. Gogol is professor of English at Mercy College.

Reviews

These thoughtful, interesting essays examine texts that explore the figure of the working woman during an era of enormous social transformation in the US. Arranged in four sections ("Naturalism and the Working Woman," "The 'New Woman,'" "Race, Sex, and Class," and "Working Women in Drama and Film"), the eight essays scrutinize work from a range of authors, including William Dean Howells, Henry James, Theodore Dreiser, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Ellen Glasgow, Ann Petry, and Rachel Crothers. The book concludes with an examination of career women in 1940s cinema. A helpful introduction covering women’s rapidly changing roles in society during this era will be particularly helpful for readers unfamiliar with the period. . . Readers interested in feminist and historical approaches to literature will profit most from this book, and it will serve as a helpful supplement to more broad-based studies of literature from the period.

Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.
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