What was it REALLY like to be a single woman in the twentieth century? Betsy Israel answers this question in her sweeping and informative history of the life of the bachelorette. Israel confronts old stereotypes about single women and reveals the truth about single life. So get that image of the lonely single “cat lady” whose biological clock is ticking out of your head!

Israel begins her history at the turn of the twentieth century. Her analysis and research throughout the entire book is set in the ever diverse New York City. Single women in the early twentieth century faced many obstacles in having to conform to family and societal expectations. Being single during this time was hardly an option or a choice for women as it is today. Middle class women especially were expected to marry and raise a family, or she otherwise would have no other means to support herself. Working women also depended on marriage in order to live a decent life. Yet, for those women who still remained single and who had to work in the harsh conditions of factories, eventually formed coalitions and organizations in order to protest and fight for better wages and working conditions. As single women started to become more prevalent in the public sphere, the New Woman emerged. The single New Woman realized the advantages of being unmarried and the burden of child rearing. Artists such as Louisa May Alcott knew that she would never have been able to write if she had married. For working women, however, single life was still a struggle. Single women were especially prey to attacks by men on the streets of New York.

Even as the New Woman emerged, society was still adamant that women MUST wed. Single women were going out more and doing recreational activities with one another that challenged the norm. The New Woman was also well educated and went to college and even graduate school and were advocates for women’s suffrage. From the New Woman emerged the Gibson Girl.

“The Gibson Girl was classically elegant and feminine– tall and thin with small hands and feet, china-white skin, and a retrousse nose. But she was also strikingly athletic. Her shoulders were well proportioned. Her hair was piled high, creating the illusion of greater height, and loose strands around the face suggested that she’d just come in from riding or tennis or some other mildly strenuous sport at which she displayed a calm mastery. She was windswept perfection. A Valkyrie holding a teacup.”

The Gibson Girl, however, did not last. She was more of a beautiful interlude in between the time of labor strikes, WWI, and women’s suffrage.

Now we have reached the era of the Flapper. After women won the right to vote, single women really stepped out. Abandoning Victorian moral values, dressing in flashy short and loose fitting dresses, drinking, smoking and exploring their sexuality, the flapper was a forced to be reckoned with. The single flapper wasn’t held down by the control of society, but rather found a new and fulfilling independence in being single. However, the burgeoning lives of single flapper came to an end after the stock market crashed in 1929 and the oncoming of WWII.

During the Depression, single women faced extreme challenges in order to survive. Not only single women, but women in general were discouraged from “stealing” jobs from men and those who did were labeled as “heartless.” Reforming the lives of women, therefore, took a back seat, and many blamed the New Woman (now in her fifties) for not properly training and educating the future generation. Throughout the thirties as women tried to regain their independent identities, their efforts were once again thwarted by the onset of WWII. We all know the image of Rosie the Riveter. As men went off to war, women began working and factories, replacing the labor that men were usually assigned to. During this time women really proved to the public that they could handle a “man’s job” and support themselves. Yet for all the work and independence women experienced during this time, they were “forced” to quit their jobs once men started returning from the war. Single women were hit especially hard once they were fired in that they did not have a home or children to go back to. Therefore, during this time, the number of marriages increased dramatically. After the war, women’s roles regressed as they were forced to become the ideal housewife.

It was during the fifties that many single women stereotypes emerged. Expectations to get married were so high, that the fear of spinsterhood for single women was everywhere.The media and some television shows featuring single women perpetuated these stereotypes and portrayed single womanhood in a negative light. As the fifties lifestyle faded into the background, the tumultuous and experimental years of the sixties and seventies had arrived bringing with it the “swinging single.” Although women experienced greater liberation and sexual freedom during this time, Israel reminds us of the dangers of being single in NYC. Israel documents the string of violent murders committed against single women throughout the sixties and seventies. These crimes reflected the way in which society was still unwilling to accept the power of the single woman.

As we enter the eighties and nineties, Israel reminds us that for single women, not much has changed. Women are still expected to get married and have children. Movies, television, books, and magazines still create an anxiety and pressure among single women to wed. It would seem as if a woman has not achieved true womanhood unless she has married and had the big white wedding. At the root of these values is the fear of the power and independence that single women represent.

Hey ladies! Feminism isn’t dead, despite what the media and entertainment industry may lead you to believe. In Susan J. Douglas’s book, Enlightened Sexism, she explores how the media has falsely made women think that they “have it all,” and have kept women from realizing that the fight for equality is far from over. In Enlightened Sexism, Douglas analyzes television shows, movies, advertisements, and magazines and how images of women in the media are still controlling women by making them believe that they cannot be successful unless they conform to ideal standards of beauty. Enlightened sexism, as Douglas defines it, is a sexism that is more subtle and a sexism in which on the surface, the media represents women in a positions of power, yet the the media is simply duping women. Advertisements, magazines, and the entertainment industry still disseminate images of sexualized women, which still control and define standards of beauty and femininity. We may have “Girl Power,” Ally McBeal, the powerful and independent women of Sex and the City, which would make it seem that women have achieved it all and that feminism’s work is done. Yet these “powerful” women are still thin and beautiful and at many times do not promote a feminist agenda (even though it may seem like it). Thus enlightened sexism keeps women in “their place” and keeps women from realizing that sexism is still prevalent, things are hardly equal, and prevents women from realizing and achieving their full potential.

Below is a clip of Douglas discussing her book:

When you think of prehistory, do the roles of women or women in general  instantly come to mind? Probably not. Instead you’re probably thinking of a hairy Neanderthal man, spear in hand, ready to strike a giant mammoth. This image of prehistory is not only inaccurate, but there is something missing from this picture. Yes, women. In The Invisible Sex, the authors attempt to reveal the way in which women shaped human evolution and the roles women played in prehistory.

Now I don’t know a whole lot about evolution or natural selection, probably just the basics; but the authors of this book clearly explain how scientists and anthropologists have based many of their theories and assumptions about these concepts based on gender stereotypes. I remember taking anthropology in high school and rarely did we discuss women and how women’s roles in prehistory shaped human life today.

The authors argue that women played an integral role in the development of agriculture, language, hunting, and art. J.M. Adovasia and Olga Soffer, leading experts in archaeological artifacts, discuss how items such as spear heads and  rope used for nets were crafted by women and used by both men and women to hunt (not large mammoths, but more likely smaller animals). As humans developed throughout thousands of years, artifacts such as the sculpture of the Venus of Willendorf (which the authors argue was crafted by a woman) revealed not only the importance of maternity, but the way in which humans developed art and concepts of symbolism. Did you ever learn that women were the ones who first developed what we can call modern language? Again, probably not. Yet, the authors explain (more coherently than I can here) that is was mothers who first began communicating with their children using verbal sounds that could be decoded into a specific language. And as women’s birth canals became narrower and the birthing process became more difficult, women depended on other women such as midwives to help in giving birth. Therefore, women formed close relationships with one another and communicated with one another more frequently.

As humans began to move out of Africa, they traveled further north to much cooler climates. In order to survive the colder climate, humans needed to be warmly dressed (duh). So, who do you think constructed and produced clothing that was warm enough for frail human bodies? Yup, women.

Women also played an important role in cultivating agriculture. While men did most of the hunting, women began growing food and domesticating plants. Soon, the plants and food that women grew became the main source of sustenance for villages. Being that women were in charge of agriculture, this gave them greater power over men. This type of dynamic is especially evident in many Native American cultures. These cultures also worshiped Goddesses and family lines were matrilineal; meaning, the family lines were traced on the mother’s side.

In no particular order:

Enlightened Sexism by Susan J. Douglas

The Body Project by Joan Jacobs Brumberg

Female Chauvinist Pigs by Ariel Levy

Backlash by Susan Faludi

Flapper by Joshua Zeitz

No Turning Back by Estelle B. Freedman

The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir

The Invisible Sex: Uncovering the True Roles of Women in Prehistory

Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women by Elizabeth Wurtzel

Doctors of the time studied the effects of the corset, and it was universally agreed upon among medics that the corset negatively affected women’s bodies and health. Yet, doctors’ reports were mainly circulated within medical circles and their findings were not disseminated amongst the larger general public.  Women were also afraid to confide in their male doctors of any of their complaints related to the corset. Sexual assault by doctors during this time was not uncommon, and the female body in general was not only taboo, but something to be feared. Thus, women were rarely if at all educated about their own bodies, and entirely dependent on male doctors if they wanted to seek out information about their bodies. Although some of the negative side effects caused by the corset may have been exaggerated or ill founded, many of these “female complaints” and medical findings cannot be ignored.

In general, corsetry, and especially the practice of tight lacing, pressed upon the stomach, liver and the large and small intestines. One of the most common side effects of the corset, however, was known as chicken breast. Chicken breast occurred when the corset pressed too tightly against the ribs, causing the ribs to fracture. Fractured ribs could then lead to punctured lungs. The constant pressure upon the ribs that the corset caused inevitably spurred the myth that some women actually had their ribs removed in order to wear their corsets as tight as possible. This myth is completely unfounded considering the fact that no medical procedure during the nineteenth century would have been able to successfully complete such an operation without the proper disinfectants and anesthetics. Another popular misconception and caricature of corsetry is that it caused women to have fainting fits. The corset did press upon the diaphragm which did not allow it to expand properly, causing trouble in breathing. There were, however, cases of fainting due to the corset, but only under extreme circumstances were women prone to faint. Another more significant ill effect of the corset was that of women experiencing a prolapsed uterus. A prolapsed uterus was so common among women that pessaries (pictured to the left) were created and used to hold the uterus in place. Pessaries were created to be worn along with the corset in that the pessaries were attached to the corset. Although doctors knew about all of the negative effects of corsetry they were reluctant to advocate the disuse of the corset because much of their practice depended upon these “female complaints” caused by the corset. Essentially, the corset, to some extent, kept doctors in business.

Finally, since women were always expected to wear the corset, it may come as no surprise that even pregnant women were expected to wear a modified form of the corset. Although women were essentially bred to be married and have children, the pregnant woman’s body was taboo and was not meant to be shown. Therefore, corsets for pregnant women were created in order to reduce the appearance of their pregnancy, to the obvious detriment of their future child. The pregnancy corset was essential in order for a woman to maintain her ideal “virginal” state of appearance. In fact, during a woman’s state of pregnancy the female body became invisible, offensive, and tabooed, and it was the fetus that was of the most concern and not the mother. However, if a woman was unwed and became pregnant, the corset was used to not only hide her pregnancy, but to cause a miscarriage as well. Some women who were unaware that they were pregnant, and continued their use of corset or even of tight lacing could inevitably cause an unexpected miscarriage. It was also widely thought among doctors at the time that the continual use of the corset throughout a woman’s pregnancy would produce a child that was not only unhealthy, but would affect the child’s mental capabilities as well. In fact, pregnant women were chastised for wearing the corset, yet in order to appear in public during their pregnancy they had to wear the corset. Again, women experienced a double standard in being criticized for wearing the corset and not wearing the corset. Also, corsetry also affected women during labor, making labor more painful for women, especially women who began wearing corsets at a young age. In terms of the psychological effect that pregnancy had on women, the corset functioned as a means for “the pregnant nineteenth-century woman to convince herself, consciously or unconsciously, that no pregnancy had occurred and that bleeding after months of ‘failed’ menstruation was simply a case of cleared ‘obstruction’” (Summers 52). In sum, the corset was used to perpetuate society’s taboos about pregnancy and the maternal body.

Published in 1991, Naomi Wolf explores how the barrage of media images of women are used to keep women in constant conflict with their bodies. The “ideal” that is presented to women through advertisements is used to make women feel inadequate; thus, women become compelled to buy the products that are being advertised in order to achieve the “ideal.” Wolf defines this western ideal of womanhood as “the beauty myth.” This myth essentially keeps women out of power. In fact, women are expected to spend their time and money on achieving this beauty, a beauty that women feel discriminated against if they don’t possess it.

Wolf divides her book into sections titled Work, Culture, Religion, Sex, Hunger, and Violence. In each section she discusses how the beauty myth affects women in terms of each of these topics. One of the most interesting arguments that Wolf makes is in her section on Sex. In this section Wolf argues that in Western society’s definition beauty and sexual identity are inextricably linked. Women can’t feel sexually attractive or express their sexuality fully if they don’t feel beautiful. In order to combat this myth and to regain our bodies, women need to realize what the media is doing to our self image.

Wolf asks, “How to begin? Let’s be shameless. Be greedy. Pursue pleasure. Avoid pain. Wear and touch and eat and drink what we feel like. Tolerate other women’s choices. Seek out sex we want and fight fiercely against the sex we do not want. Choose our own causes. And once we break through and change the rules so our sense of our own beauty cannot be shaken, sing that beauty and dress it up and flaunt it and revel in it:  In a sensual politics, female is beautiful.”

The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade by Ann Fessler is a remarkably researched book about the hundreds of thousands of teenagers and young women who gave their children up for adoption during the fifties, sixties, and seventies.  Mixed with historical research and personal testimonies from mothers who relinquished their children, The Girls Who Went Away reveals the social stigma associated with unwed pregnancy, and the emotional distress these unwed mothers experienced during and after their pregnancies.

Having been adopted herself, Fessler collects the stories of mothers whose stories have remained silent, and whose experiences have been misunderstood for decades.  During the fifties and sixties sex education was virtually non-existent. Schools promoted abstinence and many parents never bothered to have “the talk” with their children. Yet, despite the taboos concerning sex and teenagers, many teenagers were “doing it.” Unlike previous generations where going on a date meant sitting on the front porch and being monitored by parents; teenagers of the fifties and sixties were getting it on in the backs of cars and at parties without any protection. Many of the testimonies of the young women who became pregnant, conceived during their first sexual experience.

Once these young women found out that they were pregnant and told their parents, they relinquished any power over their bodies and had little to no say in making the decision whether to keep their child or not. In all of the testimonies in the book, each young woman was sent away to a maternity home for unwed mothers. Many parents were ashamed and disappointed in their daughters and knew that their family’s and daughter’s reputation would be tainted if the neighbors or the general public “found out.” While at the maternity home, the young women were unprepared for what was to come. While in labor, these young women did not know what to expect, had no one there to support them, and were treated poorly by doctors and medical staff. Some women were tied down to the hospital bed  or put out and had no recollection of giving birth.

After giving birth to their child, these young mothers would then be bombarded by social workers to sign the fateful papers that would ultimately relinquish their child. In signing these papers, these girls had no choice but to give away their child. They were either forced by their parents or could not afford the medical expenses and the means to support their child. Yet, once mother and child were separated, many parents and families refused to talk about the whole “ordeal” ever again. These girls were supposed to forget that they were ever pregnant and move on with their lives. They received no counseling and all of the women experienced either emotional distress, depression, anxiety, or post traumatic stress disorder. Women also were confronted with many health problems due to the stress of their situation. No matter what these women experienced after their pregnancy, they could never forget, and the thought of their child and where their child ended up stayed with them throughout their entire lives. For each of these women, their pregnancy and relinquishment shaped their entire lives.

After years of wondering where their child ended up and whether or not they had a good life, some mothers were lucky enough to be reunited with their child and establish a relationship with their child and their families. Through this reunion, these mothers were able to begin a healing process and come to terms with their situation and relinquishment of their child.

What Fessler’s work reveals is essentially the horrible way in which unwed mothers were treated not only by society but by their own families as well. Getting pregnant was solely the girl’s fault, and the fathers were able to continue on with their lives without the same type of chastisement experienced by pregnant women. Ironically, society could not figure out why middle class, respectable, young girls were getting pregnant. So, in order to explain this striking phenomenon, many doctors and psychologists claimed that these young girls were neurotic. Yet, society failed to educate young women and men on preventing pregnancy, and due to this lack of education, women were the ultimate sufferers.

For more information about The Girls Who Went Away, visit: http://www.thegirlswhowentaway.com/

According to historian Leigh Summers, “the corset was the first item of juvenile material culture to be sexualized” (63). Indeed, the juvenile corset became a necessary garment for female children and adolescents by the mid nineteenth century in order to properly mold the female body during its crucial development. Thus, the seeds of the ideal Victorian woman, gender division, and control over female sexuality were planted at a very early age.

Yet, up until the middle of the nineteenth century, men and boys wore corsets not only for support, but for fashion purposes as well. Caricatures of the early nineteenth century, however, depict “dandy” men in corsets, indicating that the trend of wearing corsets for men was going out of style. Men who continued to wear corsets, however, wore them for medical purposes. Therefore, as male corsetry was going out of style, the female corset increasingly became a means of distinguishing gender. Juvenile corsets reasserted female gender roles and were used to control the perceived fluidity of the female gender. As early feminists continued to threaten the concept of the traditional female identity, the juvenile corset reinforced gender division and in effect limited “the physical behavior of girl children to that considered appropriate to their gender” (Summers 68). Essentially, Juvenile corsetry reflected gender anxiety in the nineteenth century concerning male fears of female power and independence.

Juvenile corset advertisements also reflect the concept of physical and moral support that girls would gain in wearing corsets. The idea of providing women and young girls with moral support was directly related to the ideal Victorian woman, and the corset was used in order to prevent the perpetuation of “loose” morals. Thus, the corset not only physically prevented young girls from developing loose and unstructured bodies, but the corset also represented the symbolic process of formulating strict and contained moral constitutions of young women. In the corset advertisement shown to the left for an 1880 Ferris’s Good Sense Corset Waists, a “sensible (corseted) mother” is holding up a mirror to her young daughter who is wearing a “Good Sense” corset. The advertisement not only appeals to the health and comfort of the corset, but it also promotes conceptions of female beauty. As the advertisement states (not pictured), “Beautiful children (which is bolded and in large type font) wear Good Sense.” The fact that the mother is showing her daughter’s reflection in the hand mirror indicates a perpetuation of the emphasis on female beauty. This young girl in the advertisement is being taught to value her beauty, a beauty that can only be obtained through the use of a corset.

However, the juvenile corset continually sexualized the young female body and became the topic of much debate and interest within Victorian society. Although girls and young women did not possess breasts or hips, the corset objectified the waist the juvenile and pre-pubescent girl “naturally and generally possese[d]” (Summers 79). In order to maintain the sexual desirability of their daughters, mothers were encouraged to lace their daughters at a young age as evidenced from the advertisement above. Yet, the juvenile corset at the same time was used in many ways as a “chastity belt” in order to suppress what was thought to be a rampant sexual desire among young girls. In fact, the sexual and moral constitutions of girls and young women reached an almost hysterical proportion during the second half of the nineteenth century. Prevention of sexual desire and female masturbation was a major concern for mothers in the protection of their daughters’ moral constitutions. Clitoridectomy was even practiced in order to “cure” masturbation and mollify male fears of female sexuality (Summers 84). The corset, however, became an alternative means to suppress female sexuality other than clitoridectomy. Consequently, the aim of the juvenile corset was paradoxical in that it was used to promote female sexual objectification and admiration while at the same time attempting to contain and suppress female sexuality and sexual desire among girls and pre-pubescent women.

I read a criticism of My Antonia that was really interesting, and shed some light on the story and its characters. For one, the fact that Willa Cather was a lesbian, significantly affected her writing, which is evident in My Antonia. The character of Jim Burden is not the typical representation of a male character. Jim displays more feminine qualities. Although at the beginning of the novel, Jim defends Antonia and kills a snake, Jim is really “killing” a phallic symbol. Thus, Jim is in a sense rejecting his masculinity by killing the snake.

When reading the novel, I found it odd that Jim and Antonia never expressed their love for one another in a “normative” sexual manner. As the criticism sites, Willa Cather is speaking through the voice of Jim Burden. Cather would not have been able to write a novel about a lesbian relationship that would be publicly received. And so, Cather uses Jim Burden as a means to subversively explore lesbian sexuality.

There are many other aspects of My Antonia that could be explored, but on the surface, My Antonia is an engaging and well crafted story. The time and setting of the novel is, like O Pioneers! all American and reminiscent of a simpler time. Again, a highly recommended read!