Review: Srole, Carole . Transcribing Class and Gender: Masculinity and Femininity in Nineteenth-Century Courts and Offices.

Abstract

In Transcribing Class and Gender, Carole Srole takes on the difficult task of convincing historians that something they have ignored for years (and frankly, something that sounds fairly boring upon first hearing) is central to our understanding of gender in 19th century America. She succeeds magnificently. Typists, stenographers and clerks don’t sound like they’d make a riveting subject for a monograph, but Srole paints a picture of gender in the 19th century office - and by extension, in the 19th century urban world - that is interesting and enlightening. Srole examines professional journals, short fiction, union records, and popular advertising to help her readers to understand the ways in which office workers navigated the complicated gender dynamics of the workplaces and helped to shape the image of the middle class in America.