Urban Ethnography of the 1920s Working Girl

The 1920s was the era of the city. The urban population of the USA for the first time exceeded the population of rural areas and the nascent institutions of city life were flourishing. This article discusses the urban ethnography of the era with a focus on the way women and work was conceptualized, especially how ‘the city’ figured in explanation. Three ethnographies are examined —Frances Donovan'sThe Woman Who Waits (1920) and The Saleslady (1929) and Paul Cressey'sThe Taxi‐Dance Hall (1932). Donovan and Cressey presented their empirical material to show that the so‐called working girl faced a multifaceted world of opportunity in employment, not of disadvantage, as commonly emphasized in today's ethnographic studies of women and work. The conclusion reflects on the past, present and future in terms of the city's explanatory prominence in various eras.