City of Women: Sex and Class in New York, 1789-1860 [Paperback]

Christine Stansell (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

How women emerged as a distinctive class in the burgeoning society of New York City in the postCivil War era is explored from an original viewpoint in this interesting study. Female class relations, "ladies" and working women, were symbiotic. The laborers had their sexual and social demeanor regulated by their middle-class sisters, who had the leisure to act as "self-appointed exemplars of virtue." The women of the working class come to life in Stansell's identification of their lot. Adrift from family ties, they entered the labor force, many resorting to prostitution and crime, which provoked the philanthropy of genteel bourgeois women, social reformers and the rise of the settlement house movement. The neighborhoods of the poor, the tenements and bawdy houses of 19th century New York are portrayed as important elements in women's history. Stansell teaches at Princeton University.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Pre-Civil War New York City was in many ways unique; at the same time, it was a microcosm of the nation. The study of its social historyfamily life and street life, factory work and housekeeping, innocent pleasures and viceprovides an opportunity to examine questions of broad significance: trade union attitudes towards women, the issue of the family wage, the discrepancy between middle-class ideals and daily life in poor households. Stansell's perceptive analysis of these and other topics is skillfully worked into a rich and colorful portrait of working-class New York, with unforgettable sketches of its life. Without losing sight of the hardships of poverty she insists that working-class women possessed a degree of independence. Her study reveals a vigorous female culture that thrived in neighborhoods and in work groups. An important book that provides a fresh look at relations between sexes and classes. Mary Drake McFeely, Univ. of Georgia Lib., Athens
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press (September 1, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0252014812
• ISBN-13: 978-0252014819
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #191,249 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An illuinating look into the lives of working women of NYC., August 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: City of Women: Sex and Class in New York, 1789-1860 (Paperback)

Chritine Stansell has captured and vividly illuminated the lives of working women of the Industrial Revolution in NYC. I have studied this book for two classes and am sorry that I had not come across it sooner. If you are interested in the youth culture and the ways that a culture of single women emerged, this is a great book. If you are interested in the ways that working women handled themselves against the burden of the middle class genteel precepts, read this book. If you want a factual yet compelling picture of a history of women that is free from bias, check this out! City of Women details the lives of these women in a way that empowers and reveals truths that have long been hidden from America's full historical picture.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A History of Survival, December 7, 2002

By 

Alex Thanos (Columbus, OH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: City of Women: Sex and Class in New York, 1789-1860 (Paperback)

During the early part of the nineteenth century, women began to experience their first taste of autonomy. Although women were finding a role in the American workplace and society there were not many options for them. As part of the struggle to escape poverty in New York City, prostitution became an increasingly viable choice for girls with out other alternatives. Historian Christine Stansell states, "It was both an economic and a social option, a means of self-support and a way to bargain with men in a situation where a living wage was hard to come by, and holding one's own in heterosexual relations was difficult." This book deals with women in the factories as well as the working girls. Easy to read and very informative.

15 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A comprehensive but flawed portrayal of antebellum New York City, April 3, 2006

By 

Jonathan Browher "Future American History Pro... - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: City of Women: Sex and Class in New York, 1789-1860 (Paperback)

Written during a time of rapid expansion in the study of women's history, "City of Women" maintains a focus on women that is both rewarding and problematic. While her portryal gives voice to a group of women who before had none, it also creates a dichotomy that labels virtually every man mentioned in her book as pernicious and/or sinister, and her women as the constant victims of their hegemony and terror. As a result, we are left with an incomplete portrait of New York working-class society. Proto-feminists are rewarded while those women who cause no problems are largely ignored. It is here that Stansell particularly differs from Lauren Thatcher Ulrich, who championed the cause of the ordinary Puritan woman in "Good Wives." Stansell's conflict theory leads the reader with no comprehension of ordinary interaction between the sexes; only rape, murder, and other heinous crimes. In the end, neither her women or her men are redeemed.

Nonetheless "City of Women" is a must-read for gender historians, and should be read carefully, with its flaws taken into account and understood partly as product of the politics of its time.