Sex and the Office

In this engaging bookthe first to historicize our understanding of sexual harassment in the workplaceJulie Berebitsky explores how Americans attitudes toward sexuality and gender in the office have changed since the 1860s, when women first took jobs as clerks in the U.S. Treasury office. Berebitsky recounts the actual experiences of female and male office workers; draws on archival sources ranging from the records of investigators looking for waste in government offices during World War II to the personal papers of Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown and Ms. magazine founder Gloria Steinem; and explores how popular sourcesincluding cartoons, advertisements, advice guides, and a wide array of fictional accountshave represented wanted and unwelcome romantic and sexual advances. This range of evidence and the studys long scope expose both notable transformations and startling continuities in the interplay of gender, power and desire at work.