出生在卡斯廷, Maine in 1839 to Sylvanus Kidder Upham 和 Marianne Brooks Upham, Margaret Barker "Bertha" Upham 莱特 was a twice-widowed mother of two 和 no stranger to wage work herself when she drafted this article at the dawn of the twentieth century. 作为一个年轻的女人, she had married twice—both times to men who died early in the marriage—和 had one child with each husb和. After the death of her second husb和 she did not remarry, working as a journalist to support the family 和 contributing to many publications including 艺术爱好者, 大西洋, 世纪》杂志, 的Chautauquan, Lippincott的, 外域月刊, 斯克里布纳尔出版社的, 和 圣殿酒吧. She was also a member of the editorial staff for the 剑桥大学论坛 (剑桥,麻萨诸塞州). She traveled extensively in Europe with her adult children 和 the sole book she published was a travel memoir, Hired Furnished: Being Certain Economical Housekeeping Adventures in Engl和 (Robert Brothers, 1897), dedicated to her "beloved companion of these hirings"—her son Charles. A supporter of women's right to vote, 莱特 died of a heart condition in 1919, 享年八十岁, before she herself was able to exercise her newly-won right to cast a ballot.

谁是赖特笔下的女人?

莱特's examples of women working draw from a jumble of occupations but overall share middle or upper-middle-class status. Of the twelve women named in the piece, 其中四位是部长, 两位建筑师, 一个是律师, 一个是出版商, 和 one a pharmacist—all careers requiring specialized training. 剩下的四个, 两位是企业主, 一个是内河领航员, 一个在市政府工作. This collective portrait of women "doing" in America, 然后, is one of exceptional women in what at the time were considered male occupations. The examples are most likely exclusively white, 他们都不在工厂工作, 在家政服务中, 当店员或秘书. Eleven of the twelve were subjects of contemporary news coverage, suggesting that 莱特 compiled most of her examples from existing print sources rather than boots-on-the-ground research. In the order named in 莱特's draft, the women profiled are:

索菲亚·布劳恩利希(1854-1898). 布劳恩里奇的讣告 The Engineering 和 Mining Journal (20 August 1898) describes her as a "phenomenal mind" in a "frail physical home.“在她44年的生命中, Brauenlich was educated in Germany, 已婚及丧偶, attended Packard's Business College, 和 was hired by the Scientific Publishing Company in a clerical position. At the company she worked her way up to Business Manager 和 was, 正如赖特所言, the first American woman elected a Fellow of the Imperial Institute of London.

莉迪亚·塞克斯顿(1799-1894). Sexton served as both an unlicensed 和 formally licensed minister with the United Brethren Church in Ohio, 印第安纳州, 伊利诺斯州, 和堪萨斯州. At the age of seventy she became the first woman to serve as a prison chaplain at Kansas State Prison.

Antoinette Brown Blackwell (1825-1921). Blackwell was a graduate of Oberlin College 和 ordained in 1853 when she was called to serve as minister of a Congregational church in South Butler, 纽约; she later became a Unitarian. 她积极参与废奴运动, 节制, 以及女权运动, 和 wrote for the suffrage periodical 《利记手机官网》 published by her brother-in-法律 Henry Blackwell 和 his wife Lucy Stone.

奥古斯塔J. 查宾(1836 - 1905). Chapin taught school in her adolescence 和 attended Olivet College for two years. 她得了A.M. degree at the University of Michigan 和 her D.D. at Lombard University; she was ordained as a Universalist minister. She was one of the directors of the World's Congress of Religions at the 1868 World's Fair in Chicago as well as a writer 和 lecturer. 她的讣告在 普遍主义者名册 (1906) remembered her as a "champion of woman suffrage,“一个旅行者兼导游, 和 "active 和 prominent member of Sorosis,“职业女性俱乐部.

爱丽丝·金尼·莱特(1870-1949). Another Universalist minister, 莱特 was a graduate of Canton Theological School at St. Lawrence University 和 was ordained alongside her first husb和, Alfred Ellsworth 莱特, in 1891. They served as co-pastors of the Church of the Reconciliation 和 Fifth Universalist Church, 都在布鲁克林, 纽约. They divorced in 1903 和 Alice retired from ministry. In 1905 she married a Charles Hinman Graves (1839-1928); the couple left shortly thereafter for Sweden where Graves served as U.S. 1905年至1913年任大使.

伊莉斯·默瑟(1868-1947). Mercur was an architect based in Pittsburgh, 宾西法尼亚. Educated in France 和 Germany as well as at the 宾西法尼亚 Academy of Fine Arts she designed 和 supervised construction of a number of buildings including the Woman's Building at the Cotton States & International Exposition (Atlanta, Georgia) in 1895, the Y.W.C.A. 在锡拉丘兹的大楼, 纽约, the Children's Building at City Home 和 Hospital in Marshalsea, 宾夕法尼亚和圣. Paul's Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh. At age thirty-four she married Karl Rudolph Wagner (1872–1949) 和 the couple had three children.

朱丽叶除了. 哈格和她丈夫住在一起, 乔治·哈格船长, on the banks of the Ohio River in McKees Rocks, 宾西法尼亚. In 1898 she made the news when she applied for her own pilot's license. While the inspector at first "found a great many things to criticise," including that she was "too young ... too petite, gentle, refined 和 ladylike, ... too much lacking on the whole of what one expects to see in the appearance of a boat's pilot," he reluctantly admitted that she had the requisite skill 和 granted her the license. 根据一个故事 纽约杂志和广告人 (1898年8月9日). Harger's chief interest was not the passengers, not the scenery, but in the pilot 和 engine rooms...she is desirous of advancing herself in the knowledge of civil engineering."

A.E. 保罗(1843? - 1912). A. Emogene Paul seems to have been an 伊利诺斯州 native, married from 1863 to 1890 when she was either widowed or divorced. 她有两个孩子. A member of the Municipal Order League, a citizen's group seeking to improve the sanitary conditions of Chicago's public spaces, Paul moved into a formal position with the Chicago Health Department overseeing street cleaning 和 garbage collection. 一份当代的报告 美式厨房 (February 1898) suggests she was motivated in her work by the death of one of her children from diptheria.

劳拉·C. 布什. Registered as a pharmacist in 1892, 布什 eventually took "charge of the pharmacy formerly conducted by her father, 马丁L. 布什”(默克公司的报告 卷. 6, 1898). The Druggist's Circular 和 Chemical Gazette (December 1898) noted that "Miss 劳拉·C. 布什 of Rogers Park, Chicago reports an improvement in business during the past month. Miss 布什 has been in business since 1892 和 was formerly connected with the city dispensary. Her store is a modern one 和 she keeps up with the times."

玛丽安·塞西莉亚·蒂雷尔. In 1880, Tirrell became the first female graduate of the Chicago College of Pharmacy 和 also served as treasurer of the Women Pharmaceutical Association of 伊利诺斯州. 制药时代 (1912年2月)报道说. 和夫人. Tirrell were in the drug business for many years, illustrating well the success that may come through combined effort 和 united interest." Celia 和 her husb和 Charles Tirrell are listed 并排 in the Cook County list of registered pharmacists for the year 1913.

安妮·克莱恩·里克特(1840-1906). Born into a cotton plantation-owning family in Mississippi, Rickert served as a spy for the Confederacy during the Civil War 和 was briefly arrested by the Union Army. Following the war she settled in California where she worked mining silver 和 然后 eventually incorporated the Stockton 和 Tuolumne County Railroad Company.

A.J. 阿特伍德. 根据一篇发表在 每个星期 (1916年5月15日). A. J. 阿特伍德 was widowed in 1894 with a daughter to support 和 was encouraged to open an employment agency for itinerant laborers. The business eventually exp和ed to a chain of offices 和 阿特伍德's daughter eventually joined her in the family business. 看起来," the 每个星期 journalist observed, "that this business of fitting a man in the right niche is one of the most important in the modern system of efficiency."

罗莎莉·勒夫·惠特尼(1873-1939). Whitney was born in 纽约 to immigrant parents, attended Hunter College 和 纽约 University, 和 after admittance to the bar joined her father's 法律 firm as a partner. She joined the 纽约 Legal Aid Society in 1897 和 in 1901 became the Society's acting attorney in chief—the first woman to hold the position. She met her husb和, Travis Whitney, when he 卷unteered for the organization. After their marriage in 1903 the couple continued to practice 法律 和 both enjoyed long careers in public office.