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A review by kevin_shepherd
The Extra Woman: How Marjorie Hillis Led a Generation of Women to Live Alone and Like It by Joanna Scutts
3.0
To truly understand the genesis of Marjorie Hillis as a popular author and proto-feminist you’ll first have to have a basic understanding of early twentieth century American patriarchy, starting with the term coverture…
Coverture: a legal doctrine originating in English common law in which a woman's legal existence was inextricably tied to that of her husband. Under coverture she had no lawfully recognizable existence of her own. Once married, a woman’s rights and obligations were secondary and subordinate to those of her husband.
“In a legal system based on old English common law principles, single women were forced to open up their intimate relationships for public reckoning if they hoped to survive financially. In each case the woman had to present herself under “The Shadow of Marriage” as a wannabe-wife, a de facto-wife, or a former-wife.” -Joanna Scutts
It was against this backdrop in 1936 that Marjorie Hillis published Live Alone and Like It, a how-to for divorcées, widows, and single-on-purpose women who simply weren’t buying into the sexist machinery
Hillis recognized that single women like herself were “social anomalies” with fringe lives that had to be distorted or denied to fit within a marriage-based legal culture; a culture were men ruled and live-alone women held an "exaggerated idea of their own importance.”
Hillis had a remarkable career. As a bestselling author who defied conventions, she not only survived but thrived during an era that encompassed The Great Depression, World War II, and America’s infamous House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA).
“I don’t want to see the Republican Party ride to political victory on the four horsemen of calumny: Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry, and Smear.” -Marjorie Hillis on the HCUA
Joanna Scutts’ The Extra Woman not only chronicles the life and times of Marjorie Hillis, it also delves into the cultural influences of many of her contemporaries such as Dorothy Dix (How to Win and Hold a Husband, 1939) and Mary Ritter Beard (America Through Women’s Eyes, 1933). As a reader, I am unsure if this is an asset or a liability. It’s an asset if you’re expecting a broad chronology of (white) (American) women’s history, 1939-1960, but it’s a liability if your focus is biographical, centering on Marjorie Hillis, 1889-1971. The tangents are informative but a bit meandering and possibly unnecessary.
Coverture: a legal doctrine originating in English common law in which a woman's legal existence was inextricably tied to that of her husband. Under coverture she had no lawfully recognizable existence of her own. Once married, a woman’s rights and obligations were secondary and subordinate to those of her husband.
“In a legal system based on old English common law principles, single women were forced to open up their intimate relationships for public reckoning if they hoped to survive financially. In each case the woman had to present herself under “The Shadow of Marriage” as a wannabe-wife, a de facto-wife, or a former-wife.” -Joanna Scutts
It was against this backdrop in 1936 that Marjorie Hillis published Live Alone and Like It, a how-to for divorcées, widows, and single-on-purpose women who simply weren’t buying into the sexist machinery
Hillis recognized that single women like herself were “social anomalies” with fringe lives that had to be distorted or denied to fit within a marriage-based legal culture; a culture were men ruled and live-alone women held an "exaggerated idea of their own importance.”
Hillis had a remarkable career. As a bestselling author who defied conventions, she not only survived but thrived during an era that encompassed The Great Depression, World War II, and America’s infamous House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA).
“I don’t want to see the Republican Party ride to political victory on the four horsemen of calumny: Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry, and Smear.” -Marjorie Hillis on the HCUA
Joanna Scutts’ The Extra Woman not only chronicles the life and times of Marjorie Hillis, it also delves into the cultural influences of many of her contemporaries such as Dorothy Dix (How to Win and Hold a Husband, 1939) and Mary Ritter Beard (America Through Women’s Eyes, 1933). As a reader, I am unsure if this is an asset or a liability. It’s an asset if you’re expecting a broad chronology of (white) (American) women’s history, 1939-1960, but it’s a liability if your focus is biographical, centering on Marjorie Hillis, 1889-1971. The tangents are informative but a bit meandering and possibly unnecessary.