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“Rosie the Realtor” and the Re-Gendering of Real Estate Brokerage, 1930–1960

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2015

Jeffrey M. Hornstein
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Abstract

Rapidly increasing numbers of women entered the field of real estate brokerage from the 1930s through the 1950s. “Rosie the Realtor” took advantage of the postwar building boom to create an expanding career niche, capturing residential brokerage as a female domain. In the process, she stretched gendered boundaries in the masculine world of brokerage to the breaking point. Employing a complex and internally antagonistic mix of liberal feminist and conservative ideologies, female realtors created their own professional space, expanding career opportunities for women at the same time that their economic and political practices reinforced the constraints of domesticity.

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Article
Information
Enterprise & Society , Volume 3 , Issue 2 , June 2002 , pp. 318 - 351
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) (2002). Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Business History Conference. All rights reserved.

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