Bachelor Girls: The Secret History of Single Women in the Twentieth Century by Betsy Israel
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.
