Women and the City: Gender, Space, and Power in Boston, 1870-1940

Rating:
Summary: Great women's history
Review: Not only the legal status but the personal outlooks of women changed immeasurably
in the period this book covers; the subtitle speaks of space and power, but Deutsch
has also given us a fine overview of intellectual change: what women thought, and
why they thought in those ways, during an era of astonishing industrial and social
development. Through her research, we can see why the women of Henry James
were not the same as those of F. Scott Fitzgerald--and they were very different.

We are used to sympathizing with the plight of working class women, and giving
great credit to the founders of the settlement houses and political groups that helped
them, but until now I had never realized how class differences affected attitudes, and
how perfectly reasonable women of either set found great difficulty in
understanding how those of the other thought and felt. This book has helped me get
a better understanding of both groups.

In recent months I've been reading heavily in Boston history and in women's history
of this period. This book is far and away the best thing I've found. Having done
historical research using primary sources, I can tell you this author has done an
immense amount of work, and it has paid off. She uses not only the minutes of
meetings and legal reports, but personal letters and contemporary novels to tell the
story. She writes clearly, and the book is well organized. If you want a real feel for
the lives of women during a period of tremendous change, this book is the best place
I know to get it. Deutsch straightens out a lot of misconceptions, and helps to clarify
an extremely complex period.