Writing with a keen eye for detail as well as a real empathy with the first generation of wage-earning women, Tentler reconstructs the day-to-day realities of life on the job, in the home, and in the industrial neighborhoods of major cities.

With the first generations of wage-earning women, precedents were established that still operate in today's workforce. An understanding of the early decades of this century is thus essential for women's studies, labor history, and sociology. Writing with a keen eye for detail as well as a real empathy with these women, Leslie Tentler reconstructs the day-to-day realities of life on the job, in the home and in the industrial neighborhoods of major cities. In doing so, she explores the myth that jobs outside the home for this generation led to women's emancipation.