Class and Consent

Since numerous allegations of sexual harassment and assault were leveled at Harvey Weinstein in 2017, the #MeToo movement has affected public discussions of sexual abuse in the workplace, the experience of survivors, and methods of resistance to sexual violence. Spanning the Civil War era to the present, the essays in this issue reveal the extent to which recent events represent a continuation of a long-standing history of the sexualization of exploitation and violence experienced by the US working class. Contributors explore how working-class women—from launderers to sales assistants to truck drivers—reframed unwelcome advances as “sexual harassment” and developed strategies of survival, negotiation, resistance, and remediation. The issue also includes The Unrecorded Battle, a previously unpublished melodrama written by Margaret Sanger in 1912 that highlights the hazards of sexual harassment faced by a young nurse. Together, the essays represent a diverse historical exploration of the racial, gendered, and classed natures of workplace power.

Contributors. Anne Balay, Eileen Boris, Kaisha Esty, Crystal N. Feimster, Mara Keire, Annelise Orleck, Christopher Phelps, Margaret Sanger, Emily E. LB. Twarog

Christopher Phelps is Associate Professor of American History at the University of Nottingham and coeditor of Marxism and America: New appraisals.