Table of Contents:
  • Progressive era spinsters
  • Contemporary lesbians
  • Introduction : spinsters and lesbians
  • "What are you going to be?" : families and childhoods in the progressive era
  • "I knew I was odd" : growing up female
  • "O, the glorious privilege of being independent" : defining independent womanhood in the progressive era
  • "I was going to have to do it all on my own" : toward independent womanhood after World War II
  • "Such beautiful lives together" : community and companions among progressive era women
  • "We're not the only ones" : lesbian identities and communities after World War II
  • Spinsters and lesbians: resisting and surviving as independent women
  • Methodology.