Single Women’s Use of Leisure Time: 

Over 100 Years A Part…..Same Concept

Society and its many aspects have certainly evolved since about the year 1900. Then, the first practical automobile had just been built fifteen years prior, most of the sports that we center our hearts around today were either just coming into their own or not invented yet, and the average salary for an American production worker in 1909 (which was the first record of the sort taken) was $3.80/hr. Now, there are well over one hundred different car, truck, and motorcycle manufacturers, sports have become quite ridiculous in their news coverage and revenue, and the average salary for a production worker taken in 1999 was $13.90/hr. We have undoubtedly progressed technologically as a whole over this time. But, when it comes down to it, some of our mannerisms, intentions, and behavior have not changed all that much in some aspects. Take working-class women for example; about that time in history women, in a broad sense, were just starting to realize that they could have a life that was not centered around the home and a family. They were capable of having some fun after a long days work. Peiss states in her book Cheap Amusements: Working Women and Leisure in Turn-of-the-Century New York:

“Not content with quiet recreation in the home, they sought adventure in dance halls, cheap theaters, amusement parks, excursion boats, and picnic grounds. Putting on finery, promenading the streets, and staying late at amusement resorts became an important cultural style for many working women.” (Peiss- pg. 57)

There were two places that were of little or no expense that women used to fulfill their desire to be socially engaged; one was called the “Streets”. Peiss explains the “Streets” as somewhere that the young women could freely express themselves. They did not have to worry about the restrictions of such behavior in the streets as they did either at school or in the boarders of home and the workplace. 

“In their teens, young women and men used the streets as a place to meet the other sex, to explore nascent sexual feelings, and carry on flirtations, all outside the watchful eyes and admonitions of parents.” (Peiss- pg. 58)

The second of the two were Social Clubs. These offered pretty much the same thrills as did the “Streets” only with more organization. They were basically what we know as a dance club or bar today. It was geared towards the women freely enjoying themselves, while also meeting men and showing off their new clothes.

My argument is that the philosophy behind what women intended on portraying during their nights out back then is almost dead on what women intend to do on nights out in this era. I spent three years working at a bowling alley. It provided the same settings as the “Streets” and Social Clubs did in the past. There was a bar area with room for dancing, every Saturday night we had a Glow-Bowl with lights and music, so that gave the women the same atmosphere. Through my time working there, I witnessed single and married women of all ages come out on a Friday or Saturday night and just have fun; the teens and college women more so than the married women. They would come in with their group of friends, I’d see them scouting out the men, just as the women of 1900 did, they danced and bowled while also spending some time with their significant others if they had them, or the group of friends they came with. Another thing that I really did not think twice about then, but have realized now, is countless times I overheard the women gossiping over the trends. They would talk about shoes, and clothes, and jewelry, and that new pair of jeans that they just had to buy. I saw all kinds of interactions between women and men while working there. Bowling and going to bars really is not all that cheap, but I do believe that it falls into the category of our era’s cheap amusements. Yes, times have changed. Yes, with the influence of technology our society has become much more evolved in the ways we interact with each other. Despite all that advancement and change, the overall intentions of a woman, single or married, when they “go out” has really not changed all that much.

--Casey Hatton 

Sources:

Peiss, Kathy Lee. Cheap Amusements: Working Women and Leisure in Turn-of-the-Century New York. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 1986. Print.

Link to where I got the salary information