Title This grand experiment : when women entered the federal workforce in Civil War-era Washington, D.C / Jessica Ziparo

Published Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, [2017]

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Description 1 online resource (xii,399 pages) : illustrations Series Civil War America Civil War America (Series) Contents We are not playthings -- I wonder if I cannot make application for an appointment too: women join the federal workforce -- Telling her story to a man: applying for government work -- Teapots in the treasury of the nation: gendering work and space -- A strange time to seek a residence in Washington: perils and possibilities of life for female federal clerks -- The picked prostitutes of the land: reputations of female federal employees -- I am now exerting all my thinking powers: women's struggle to retain and to regain federal positions -- What makes us to differ from them?: the argument for equal pay in the nation's capital -- We do not intend to give up Summary In the volatility of the Civil War, the federal government opened its payrolls to women. Although the press and government officials considered the federal employment of women to be an innocuous wartime aberration, women immediately saw the new development for what it was: a rare chance to obtain well-paid, intellectually challenging work in a country and time that typically excluded females from such channels of labor. Thousands of female applicants from across the country flooded Washington with applications. Here, Jessica Ziparo traces the struggles and triumphs of early female federal employees, who were caught between traditional, cultural notions of female dependence and an evolving movement of female autonomy in a new economic reality. In doing so, Ziparo demonstrates how these women challenged societal gender norms, carved out a place for independent women in the streets of Washington, and sometimes clashed with the female suffrage movement Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes Print version record Subject Women -- United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 Women -- Employment -- Washington (D.C.) -- History -- 19th century Sex role -- Washington (D.C.) -- History -- 19th century Women -- United States -- Social conditions -- History -- 19th century Women's rights -- United States -- History -- 19th century Employees Sex role Women Women -- Employment Women -- Social conditions Women's rights SUBJECT United States -- Officials and employees -- History -- 19th century Subject United States Washington (D.C.) Genre/Form Electronic books History Form Electronic book ISBN 9781469635989 1469635984 9781469635996 1469635992

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