Working Girls of New York

When we were talking about Fanny Fern's piece the other day in class and talking about what we thought the difference was between women and girls and the relationship that has with social classes, I immediately thought of the book I read last semester in Intro to American Studies class. We read Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser which was written in 1900. I don't know if any of you have read this book, but it brings to light the same discussion of girl vs. women and their social classes. Carrie, the main character, had to work in factories when she first got to Chicago, just to barely get by. Then once a man came in her life she started to become a little better off, better clothes and better house. Towards the end she becomes an actress and is looked at as a women, so I just thought this book goes hand in hand with the discussion that usually a working female, is generally called a girl and a women is someone who tends to be better off. This was just what I was thinking of when talking about women vs. girl.

I thought it was also interesting that Fern's piece talked about how there hasn't been a good book written about women by men in relationship to the connection I drew with this piece and Sister Carrie. Dreiser is a male writer, so would Fern feel that he didn't capture the difficulties Carrie went through to become a "woman"?

-Jessica Mitchell