Making Both Ends Meet: The Income and Outlay of New York Working Girls (Classic Reprint) - Hardcover

Sue Ainslie Clark

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0484101129 ISBN 13: 9780484101127

Publisher: Forgotten Books, 2018

Synopsis

Making Ends Meet: The Income and Outlay of New York Working Girls presents the real financial lives of self-supporting women in early 20th‑century New York.

It gathers first‑hand budgets and narratives to show how wages, housing, food, and daily costs shaped the street‑level economy for working women.

This nonfiction work compiles economic records from sale clerks to factory workers, revealing how income and outlay intersect in a city of rapid change. Through the stories of ordinary riders, embroiderers, cloak finishers, and shop girls, the book examines working conditions, housing, and health, along with the hopes for fair pay and safer work.

• Learn how budgets were collected and what they reveal about daily living for New York’s working women.
• See how wages compared with rent, food, laundry, and clothing in different industries.
• Understand the role of strikes, subcontracting, and evolving labor practices in shaping earnings.
• Explore the broader questions of legislation, enforcement, and social reform that influenced women’s work.

Ideal for readers interested in labor history, social reform, and the everyday economics of early American cities.

Edition details

• Publisher: Forgotten Books
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0484101129
• ISBN 13: 9780484101127
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 315