Bachelor Girl

MacDonald, Dwight, 199

macho career woman, 248–49

MacLaine, Shirley, 185

Macpherson, Annie, 35

McPherson, Scott, 52–53

Main Street (Lewis), 146

Mann Act, 124

Mannequin, 140

mannish lesbians, 143

man shortages, 171, 172, 176, 183, 237–38, 250

Marjorie Morningstar, 186, 198

marriage, 2, 3, 102, 115–16, 129, 248

in British common law, 27

dangers of, 31, 89

Depression era and, 151, 161–62

domestic feminists’ view of, 27–28

as duty, 26–27

flappers and, 129, 135, 136, 137

of immigrant working girls, 62

inequality in, 28

maiden name retained in, 29, 74

male drinking and, 31

male preferences and, 115, 119

of new women, 115, 119

new women’s rejection of, 115–16, 117

as 1950s norm, 183–86, 187, 188, 189–96, 206, 209, 252

in 1960s, 208, 209, 211, 222, 223, 232

in 1970s, 234

in 1980s and 1990s, 250, 251–56

as oppressive institution, 27

in postwar period, 170–71, 175

rates of, 30, 116, 151, 184

sex in, 142, 145

shop girls and, 89, 97

single blessedness vs., 25–30, 31–32, 34, 35, 40, 41, 42, 45, 53

upper-class women and, 18–19

married working women, 150, 215, 247

Marvin’s Room (McPherson), 52–53

Mary Tyler Moore Show, The, 233–34, 258

Mead, Margaret, 191

Meehan, Diana, 227

Meet Millie, 197

Menehin, Thomas, 155

Millay, Edna St. Vincent, 101, 115

Miller, Jean Baker, 239

Miller’s New York as It Is, 72

Millet, Kate, 237n

Mills, C. Wright, 103

Milton, John, 27

Minister’s Charge, The (Howells), 64

Minor Characters (Johnson), 200, 205

Miss America pageants, 132

Modern Woman: The Lost Sex (Farnham and Lundberg), 172–73

Moliere, 16

Moore, Colleen, 113, 130–31, 133

Morley, Christopher, 55, 101–102, 103–4, 107

Moskowitz, Belle, 121

murders, single girl, 227–31, 240–41

Murphy Brown, 248–49

Muses, 37

Muzzy, Aretemus B., 26

Nashoba commune, 35

neurotic husband hunters, 157, 172–75

conduct guides for, 174–75

as half a human unit, 173–74, 186

new dependency, 140–41, 150

new spinsters, 29, 138–47

families as financial drain on, 140–41

lifestyle of, 138–39

limitations of, 145–47

as socially pathetic, 145

see also sexology

new women, 9, 114–38

causes supported by, 159–60

college education of, 114, 115, 116, 117, 119, 127

criminal tendencies of, 121

feminist meetings organized by, 116–17

as Gibson girls, 9, 124–26, 129

marriage rejected by, 115–16, 117

marriages of, 115, 119

meaning of term, 114–15

popular vs. reformist, 118–21, 134

purchasing power of, 125–26

sexology of, 117–18

smoking by, 114–15, 116, 130, 132, 133, 134

tea dances of, 120–21, 127

white slavery and, 122–24, 125

see also flappers

New York in Slices (Foster), 65

Nightingale, Florence, 25, 26, 270

calling of, 35, 41, 43

life of, 40–44, 47–48

marriage as viewed by, 25, 42

marriage proposals rejected by, 31–32 1950s, 6, 179, 181–206, 233, 237, 254

Barbizon hotel in, 194–96

Beat generation in, 204–6

beauty advertising in, 191–93

birthrate in, 184, 188

breasts emphasized in, 192