Bachelor Girl

shop girl to the Gibson goddess to the swinging single…. Replete with both Dickensian details and humorous asides.”

—New York Times

“When it comes to being a bachelor girl, women have long been stuck with a stigma. Author Betsy Israel explains how to defy it.”

—Cosmopolitan

“Betsy Israel deconstructs all the old ‘single girl’ stereotypes, providing us with a fresh, perceptive point of view and elevating the bachelor girl to her rightful place in modern American social history—and it’s about time.”

—Susan Seidelman, director, Sex and the City and Desperately Seeking Susan

“Betsy Israel salutes single womanhood from the last century’s spinsters to the career gals of today.”

—Vanity Fair

“What a read! At long last, a book that really tells it like it is. I loved it!”

—Liz Smith

“A lively history of single women, shifting between the facts of women’s lives and their representation in the media…. Fascinating.”

—Boston Globe

“A must-read for contemporary bachelor girls. Israel’s insightful study examines the plight of the single woman as a social phenomenon from the mid-1900s to the present.”

—Booklist

“Betsy Israel explores, in a thoughtful and entertaining style, why society persists in finding nonconforming women both threatening and perplexing.”

—Elle (Canada)

“Required reading!”

—New York Post

“Betsy Israel’s social history covers everything from 1920s flappers to 1970s career girls, with wit and style. A must-read for feminists with a sense of humor.”

—Marie Claire

“Single women are still designated as different from the other kind, not a group any single figure is particularly comfortable to be signed up with. What is this categorizing about? Betsy Israel’s brilliant new book takes us through a century of ‘different-ness’ and explores why it might be extant.”

—Helen Gurley Brown, former Cosmopolitan editor in chief and author of Sex and the Single Girl

“[Bachelor Girl] is not one history but two: an examination of popular perceptions about single women since the Industrial Revolution paired with the lesser-known truth about how women actually inhabited their roles…. Engaging, convincing, even stirring.”

—Kirkus Reviews

“Israel has an easy journalistic style and clips along at a good pace. She coins some witty phrases—‘the Cult of Independence’—and often breaks for the ironic aside…. An intriguing balance of cultural history and pointed detail.”

—San Francisco Chronicle

“Bachelor Girl takes a revealing look at just how far the single woman has come. For those girls and the country’s women in general, Bachelor Girl serves as a reminder, as well as a yardstick: You may have come a long way, but don’t forget the hardy souls who made it possible.”

—BookPage

“Impressive…. Israel’s witty and provocative look at a topic dear to many women deserves wide readership.”

—Publishers Weekly

“You can take all the glowing adjectives you know, lay them in a row, and still not have enough to accurately describe this 294-pager that will make your heart sing.”

—Massachusetts Post-Gazette

“Betsy Israel’s Bachelor Girl is the history of women in the U.S.”

—More magazine Book Pick

Copyright

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BACHELOR GIRL. Copyright © 2002 by Elizabeth Israel. All rights reserved under International and Pan- American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non- transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.