Crothers was writing during a period of intense societal shift. Her lengthy career spanned numerous important historical events, such as the women’s suffrage movement, World War I, and the Great Depression. Her plays interact with these issues, specifically with how they related to women. For instance, in A Man’s World, the storyline “reflects the larger social context of the play, the social reform movement in America” (Gottlieb 39). Her plays deal with the fight for prostitute’s rights, the liberation of women, and the living conditions of working girls. She does not engage with the suffrage movement directly, but marry of her plays deal with women’s domesticity and the pressure to marry versus having a career.

Crothers was writing during a time of great change for women in society, “against the backdrop of World War I, the entry of women into the work force, the disintegration of traditional roles, and the consequent stress in family relationships” (Friedman 72). These changes intersected with the rise and fall of feminism, and not as straightforwardly as one might think. It is important to note that feminism was not popular at the time, and feminists were looked down upon, even by other woman. To complicate matters further, “the winning of the vote in 1920 signaled the decline in feminism…the feminist became an object of ridicule, if not pity” (Friedman 72). The position of women in society was not well-defined in this era, with people, including women, having radically different ideas about what society should look like with regards to gender. This historical and societal reality had a major impact on what Crothers wrote and how she wrote about it.

Although feminist issues, and the role of women in society, were hugely relevant issues when Crothers began writing, later in her career, other societal issues were at the forefront. As we will see, she never wavered in her written themes of womanhood, even as other playwrights moved towards other material. For instance, He and She had very different success levels in it’s original production in 1912 and the revival in 1920, as “the question of whether a woman could have a career and still be a good wife and mother had become an outdated issue between the first production in 1912 and the revival, and the discussion was no longer considered relevant to the current concerns of women” (Murphy). Moreover, society was more concerned with World War I and the Great Depression in the 1910s-30s. Woman’s place in society was a lesser concern than working conditions and money. The societal shifts in what mattered very much intersected with Crothers’ commercial success as a playwright, as she remained committed to maintaining her themes that the rest of the country had left behind in at the turn of the century.

Sources:

Friedman, Sharon. “Feminism as Theme in Twentieth-Century American Women’s Drama.” American Studies, vol. 25, no. 1, 1984, pp. 69–89. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40641831

Gottlieb, Lois C. Rachel Crothers. Twayne, 1979.

Murphy, Brenda. “Feminism and the marketplace: the career of Rachel Crothers”. Cambridge Companion to American Women Playwrights. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999. ProQuest Literature Online. Web. 26 April 2018.