Transcribing Class and Gender: Masculinity and Femininity in Nineteenth-Century Courts and Offices

335 Pages·2009·3.929 MB·English

by  Carole Srole

Transcribing Class and Gender
CLASS : CULTURE
series editors
Amy Schrager Lang, Syracuse University, and Bill V. Mullen, Purdue University
editorial board
Nicholas Bromell, University Jonathan Prude, Emory University
of Massachusetts Steven Ross, University of Southern
Nan Enstad, University of Wisconsin California
Amy Gluckman, Dollars and Sense Cecelia Tichi, Vanderbilt University
Leslie Harris, Emory University Lisa Yun, Binghamton University
Cora Kaplan, University of Southampton Alan Wald, University of Michigan
Louis Mendoza, University of Minnesota Janet Zandy, Rochester Institute
of Technology
titles in the series:
The Syntax of Class: Writing Inequality in Nineteenth-Century America
Amy Schrager Lang
Vanishing Moments: Class and American Culture
Eric Schocket
Let Me Live
Angelo Herndon
Workin’ on the Chain Gang: Shaking Off the Dead Hand of History
Walter Mosley
Commerce in Color: Race, Consumer Culture, and American Literature, 1893–1933
James C. Davis
You Work Tomorrow: An Anthology of American Labor Poetry, 1929–41
Edited by John Marsh
Chicano Novels and the Politics of Form: Race, Class, and Reifi cation
Marcial González
Moisture of the Earth: Mary Robinson, Civil Rights and Textile Union Activist
Edited by Fran Leeper Buss
Grassroots at the Gateway: Class Politics and Black Freedom Struggle in
St. Louis, 1936–75
Clarence Lang
Natural Acts: Gender, Race, and Rusticity in Country Music
Pamela Fox
Transcribing Class and Gender: Masculinity and Femininity in
Nineteenth-Century Courts and Offi ces
Carole Srole
Transcribing Class
and Gender
Masculinity and Femininity in
Nineteenth-Century Courts and Of‹ces
carole srole
The University ofMichigan Press
Ann Arbor
Copyright © by the University ofMichigan 2010
All rights reserved
Published in the United States ofAmerica by
The University ofMichigan Press
Manufactured in the United States ofAmerica
cPrinted on acid-free paper
2013 2012 2011 2010 4 3 2 1
No part ofthis publication may be reproduced,stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form or by any means,electronic,mechanical,or
otherwise,without the written permission ofthe publisher.
A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Srole,Carole,1948–
Transcribing class and gender :masculinity and femininity in
nineteenth-century courts and offices / Carole Srole.
p. cm.— (Class :culture)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn978-0-472-07055-8 (cloth :alk.paper)
1.Working class women—United States—History—19th century.
2.Stenographers—United States—History—19th century.
3.Masculinity—United States—History—19th century. 4.Femininity—
United States—History—19th century. 5.Social classes—United
States—History—19th century. I.Title.
hd6073.s582u67 2009
305.38'9623097309034—dc22 2009018640
ISBN13 978-0-472-02664-7 (electronic)
To Kenneth S.Star,the good

Acknowledgments
The number ofpeople who have helped me along the way has ex-
panded more than I could imagine.I thank you all,even the ones I have failed
to mention here.
I received funding through creative leave and sabbatical awards from Cali-
fornia State University,Los Angeles.The quantitative materials were based on a
grant from the Department ofLabor.Generous assistance was provided by staff
from the New York Public Library;the New York Historical Society;Harvard;
Yale;the University ofCalifornia,Los Angeles;the Massachusetts Department
ofVital Statistics;and the Boston Globe.Marshall Jorpeland,director of com-
munications for the National Court Reporters Association, went beyond the
call ofduty by supplying citations and current issues ofthe Journal ofCourt Re-
portingand taking the time to calculate membership numbers.
Research assistants and family members helped ‹nd citations and docu-
ments: I thank Sam Vong, Irma Valdivia, M. Gwin Wheatley,Amy Ver Berg,
Greg Srolestar,and Julianna Coco.I could not have ‹nished this book without
the computer consultation ofKen Star and Matthew Srolestar.
Friends and colleagues supplied help in countless ways.Cindy Aron,Jesse
Batton,Wendy Gamber,Marc Silberman,Rennie Schoep›in,and Scott Wells
shared documents and citations.Thomas Alvarez,Marilyn Boxer,Jim Cullen,
Angel Kwolek-Folland,Karen Lystra,Bill Rorabaugh,Joan Severa,Sarah Stage,
and Eileen Boris and the anonymous readers at Feminist Studies offered advice
on parts of chapters or conference papers. Cindy Aron, Tom Dublin, Nancy
Page Fernandez,Wendy Gamber,Glenna Matthews,Ken Star,and Lillian Taiz
read all ofthe chapters.Anthony Bernier,Lesley Kawaguchi,and Greg Srolestar
commented on the entire manuscript more than once.
I have been fortunate to have a number ofcommunities who have given ad-
vice and moral support.The members ofa U.S.women’s history reading group
in Southern California provided an intellectual community that I treasure,
comprised of Nancy Page Fernandez, Jill Fields, Jennifer Hillman Helgren,
Karen Lystra, Lois Nettleship, Emily Rader, Donna Schuele, and former
or sometime participants Victoria Brown, Mary Lou Locke, Peggy Renner,
viii / acknowledgments
Margaret Rose,and Sarah Stage.I value the friendship and “old girl”network of
the many participants in the yearly Teaching Workshop on Women’s History.I
especially thank Emily Abel,Patricia Cohen,Mary Felsteiner,Jill Fields,Estelle
Freedman,Jo Goodwin,and Marge Lasky,who brainstormed titles and publi-
cation strategies,searched for records,and introduced me to the University of
Michigan editor. I cannot thank Karen Lystra and Nancy Page Fernandez
enough for spending days helping revise the introduction and title and clarify
my ideas and for graciously putting up with my phone calls and e-mails.
Family and friends enlivened my research trips to the east.My aunt,Esther
Srole,generously provided bed and board and family stories in New York.In
the early years,Ted Byers,Judy Taylor,and Marion Bloch put me up in Boston,
and Myrtle and Saul Srole supplied room,board,and guided trips throughout
the Washington,D.C.,area.
I appreciate those historians who have given moral support and encourage-
ment over the long haul:Stanley Burstein,Nancy Page Fernandez,Nancy Fitch,
Karen Lystra,and Lillian Taiz.I also appreciate former students who willingly
discussed my work:Anthony Bernier,Torrie Hester,Jennifer Langdon,and Ly-
dia Otero.
I am indebted to the support and advice ofUniversity ofMichigan Press ed-
itor LeAnn Fields;the editors of the Class:Culture series,Amy Schrager Lang
and Bill V.Mullen;and the anonymous readers for the press.
Most important of all,I thank Kenneth Star,to whom this book is dedi-
cated,for never losing faith in me.
Contents
introduction 1
i. initial hooks
chapter1. Performing Independence:Male Clerks,Bookkeepers,
and Stenographers from 1820 to 1870 17
chapter2. Treasury Girls and the Masses:From Degraded
Women Workers to Employees 44
ii. final hooks
chapter3. Stepping-Stones and Short Ladders:
Men’s Faltering Independence 71
chapter4. The Male Stenographers’Solution:
The Language ofProfessionalism 95
chapter5. Typewriter Girls and Lady Stenographers:
The Challenges ofRespectability 129
chapter6. “My Fondest Hopes Will Have Been Realized”:
Independence,Ambition,and the New Woman 160
chapter7. Performances ofProfessionalism 190
epilogue 219
notes 233
appendix Abbreviations ofShorthand Journals 301
Manuscript Collections 301
Description and Linking ofSources 302
Occupational Categories 304
Tables 305
index 317