"The Woman Who Toils" - Bessie and Marie van Vorst - Everybody's
Reportage
Tags
Description
The sisters-in-law van Vorst made the circuit as ostensible factory girls from the pickle factories of Pittsburgh to the shoe factories of Lynn, Massachuetts and on to the cotton mills of North Carolina. Originally published in a series in Everybody's Magazine in 1902, it became a book, published by Doubleday, the following year. Their starting point was an unapologetic sense of superiority over the wage earners they spent months impersonating, living and working among. Reviewers were quick to point to this approach as both a plus and a minus. As for revelations, they reported on the surprising number of young women whose only reason for working in the factories was near folly -- to earn pocket money for clothes and leisure -- and how that had depressed wages and opportunity for women who needed the jobs to support themselves or their families.
Media History
The reporting was intended for these media types: Magazine, Book
Additional Resources
Effects and Outcomes
Of the toiling women ruses, the work of the sisters-in-law van Vorsts was among the most successful. A book that followed their series in Everybody's Magazine became a bestseller of 1903 in the "Miscellaneous" category, holding its own for half a year against such formidable competitors as Helen Keller's "The Story of My Life" and Booker T. Washington's "Up from Slavery." The book contained their reports on additional exploits.
Articles, Books, Video/Film
I-"The Woman That Toils" - Bessie van Vorst - Everybody's Magazine | "Experiences of a Literary Woman as a Working Girl"
September 1, 1902
The precede in Everybody's reads: "The following is an account of the writer's actual experiences while working for ...II-"The Woman That Toils" - Marie van Vorst's- Everybody's Magazine | "Experiences of a Literary Woman as a Working Girl"
October 1, 1902
Marie van Vorst at work in a Lynn, Massachusetts shoe factory under the name of Belle Ballard for "The Woman That ...III-"The Woman That Toils" - Bessie van Vorst - Everybody's Magazine | "Being the Experiences of Two Gentlewomen as Factory Girls"
November 1, 1902
Bessie van Vorst working undercover in a knitting mill at Perry, New York for a five-part series in Everybody's ...IV-"The Woman That Toils" - Marie van Vorst - Everybody's Magazine | "Being the Experiences of a Literary Woman as a Working Girl"
December 1, 1902
Marie van Vorst's experiences posing as a worker in a southern mill for a five-part series in Everybody's Magazine, ...V-"The Woman That Toils" - Bessie van Vorst's - Everybody's Magazine | "Experiences of a Literary Woman as a Working Girl"
January 1, 1903
Final part of the series by the sisters-in-law van Vorst investigating how women of the other half live and work.Bessie (Mrs. John) and Marie van Vorst's "The Woman Who Toils: Being the Experiences of Two Gentlewomen as Factory Girls"
1903