Women--Employment

A priest stands on the left holding a paper that states “The steady decline of womanhood from its old ideals.” Puck pulls back a curtain to reveal women in many roles in society, such as doctors, lawyers, school teachers, athletes, artists, nurses, secretaries, “Tenement House Inspectors,” and as members of such organizations as the “S.P.C.A.” Caption: Puck — Do you really think, my clerical friend, that the old ideals were better than these?

comments and context

Comments and Context

Through its life as a publication, Puck frequently found fault with clerics and traditional denominations, although not with the Bible itself. Sermons and messages that Puck criticized usually dealt with what it deemed to be excesses, foolish pronouncements, and hypocrisy.

William Loeb asks Mary L. Marshall to write him and clarify what sort of work she desires, and in which department.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-12-16

Alice Lee Moqué writes to Theodore Roosevelt requesting assistance in finding employment with the Bureau of Emigration. She has previously worked with the Census Bureau and wishes to apply her credentials to further government work to support her family.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-05-27

An Irish American woman labeled “Walking Delegate” displays the “By-Laws of the Help Lady’s Union” during a dinner party hosted by an elderly woman sitting at a table with her guests. Women domestics are seen removing their aprons, as a man in the background orders the “Walking Delegate” to leave.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1899-02-08

A fashionably dressed young woman, carrying a bag labeled “1897,” arrives at the entrance of a building where she is greeted by a small man with a bespectacled, globe-shaped head, as another woman carrying a bag labeled “1896” and a paper that states “Very Bad Character – World” departs.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-01-06

Print shows a vignette cartoon with 12 vignettes around a central figure, showing how the employer should treat her woman domestic, if she wants to keep her. Vignettes include 1) “Promise her anything and everything,” 2) “Give her the best bed in the house,” 5) “When dinner is ready – wait on her,” 6) turn a blind eye toward thievery and to 9) “packages and bundles carried out by relatives,” as well as 7) turn a deaf ear to her rants, and 12) “Raise her wages higher each month.” The center vignette, numbered “13,” shows a woman holding keys as her domestic help stands next to a stove, and suggests another option, “Take Matters into Your Own Hands and Keep Her in Her Place.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1883-12-05

Many young women try to find space on a raft labeled “Living Wages” in a stormy sea labeled “Sea of Want” that is infested with sharks labeled “Prostitution” and “Disease.” A ship labeled “The Home” sails away in the background beneath storm clouds labeled “Misfortune.” Caption: While there are more applicants than jobs the working-girls’ grim struggle will continue.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1913-04-09

A policewoman observes a crowd of women outside a store advertising a “Sacrifice Sale of Millinery.” She is torn by her obligation to her duties as a police officer and her desire to take advantage of the sale. Caption: She will never be a success on some “fixed posts.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1913-04-16

A woman wearing a red dress, holding money, stands between the “Health Department Bureau of Licences and Inspection” and an opening in a wall labeled “Graft.” In a cut-away showing the scene behind the “Graft,” the man (probably a plainclothes officer) who collects the money through the opening in the wall is passing money to a uniformed officer, who in turn passes the money to a large hand (probably that of a politician) entering the frame from above. It is a wild scene with a woman lying on a table, the body of a man stabbed to death beneath the table, a man rolling dice, others drinking, and a shooting taking place in the background. While the woman in red hesitates, the implication is that she has no choice but to pay the graft. Caption: She is here. Man is responsible for her. His laws against her and her traffic but afford opportunity for police extortion. You know this. You may wince at the idea of “regulation,” but is not regulation preferable to the vilest forms of graft? Of two evils, must the greater be chosen?

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1913-01-15

An opera manager talks with an attractive young woman who aspires to be an opera singer. Two somewhat less attractive and considerably heavier women wearing costumes stand behind them. Caption: The Young One — But if my voice and acting are satisfactory, why is it you won’t let me sing “Juliette”? / Manager –Woman alive, I can’t! You are only nineteen, and as pretty as a picture, and you weigh less than 140 pounds!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1913-02-12

A city sidewalk is crowded with women who are denied entry to upscale shops. An old woman labeled “Necessity” creates a maelstrom that drives many of the women to seek shelter where they can, which happens to be a brightly illuminated building topped with a “$” where the Devil is sitting, waiting for them. Caption: It is not inclination, but necessity, that drives the underpaid shop-girl to the Devil.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-12-11