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DONNA J. SEIFERT from the street, there were stairs leading to the second floor, and to the right was the doorway to the parlor, which was hung with heavy silk cord. Within Site of the White House: The parlor was comfortably furnished with a red The Archaeology of velvet couch and three or four chairs and oil lamps or gas lights. In the hall or parlor was a “stand Working Women with a looking glass from the knees up” (a Victo- rian hallstand). The madam, a woman of about 40, well dressed and bejeweled, invited the boy and ABSTRACT the fighter into the parlor. Six young women came down. They were skimpily dressed and wore eye Gender roles define appropriate behavior for members of makeup and rouge (Joseph E. Scheele 1989, pers. society according to sex and age, and appropriate behavior comm.). These were working women of Hooker’s includes appropriate work. The relationship between con- Division. sumer behavior, household composition, and household function in turn-of-the-century Washington, D.C., is eluci- dated by understanding women’s work. Archaeological ex- cavations in downtown Washington, D.C.’s, Federal Tri- Introduction angle produced artifact collections from two types of households, working-class households and brothels. For Washington, D.C. ’s, red-light district from the working-class wives, the home was the workplace, and 1890s to 1914 was known as Hooker’s Division. many of these women participated in both paid and unpaid labor without going out to work. Turn-of-the-centurybroth- Historic Hooker’s Division was the west end of els were also both workplace and home, but brothels were modern Washington, D.C.’s, Federal Triangle, the organized as commercial institutions, not social units. Com- triangle formed by Pennsylvania Avenue, Consti- parisons of artifact assemblages from a brothel and two tution Avenue, and 15th Street. The White House working-class households in the neighborhood historically and the Treasury are a few blocks to the known as Hooker’s Division and assemblages from two U.S. other Washington, D.C., neighborhoods indicate different northwest, the Capitol is to the southeast, and the consumer patterns; these patterns reflect differences in Smithsonian Mall is across Constitution Avenue, household composition and household function. to the south. Like many 19th-century urban cen- ters, Washington, D.C., constrained but tolerated the “Social Evil” within walking distance of the Hooker’s Division, 1913 business district: Hooker’s Division was conve- niently located between the executive and legisla- There was a house off Ohio Avenue I visited with a fighter tive seats of the federal government, with down- from New York City staying at a house in Georgetown D.C. (my cousin’s house). This Italian fighter took me (about 13 town Washington, D.C., just across Pennsylvania years old) after a wrestling match around the corner. The Avenue (Figure 1). match was between a very famous man at that time, Joe During the Civil War, the Division was known Turner & some man; nobody could beat him. Turner won. for its saloons and brothels, but for most of the The wrestling match was a block on Penn. Ave., a block 19th century, the Division was a working-class from 9th Street in a large arena at that time. The Brothel house was on a street facing East, 3 stories neighborhood of households composed of wage la- high, six girls, a Madam; all pretty to me. The fighter borers and their families and boarders. From the picked one & took her out of the room to the stairs to the 1860s to the 188Os, prostitutes in the neighborhood 2nd floor, I guess, as I sat in the living room with a couple lived in brothels or as boarders in working-class of the girls, which gave me a ginger Ale till the fighter came households. By 1900, however, the majority of the back; we took the trolley on Penn. Ave. home to George- town (Joseph E. Scheele 1989, pers. comm.). households in the neighborhood were brothels like the one which 13-year-old Joseph Scheele visited Joe Scheele further described the house he went in 1913. Excavations in historic Hooker’s Division to with the fighter. Directly in front of the entrance presented an opportunity to study the history and THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF WORKING WOMEN 83 FIGURE 1 Location of the project area in historic Hooker’s Division and modern Federal Triangle, Northwest Wash- ington, D.C. (USGS 1983). archaeology of the national capital’s red-light dis- ton, D.C., neighborhoods reveals striking differ- trict at the turn of the century. ences in consumer patterns, differences related to This paper examines archaeological assem- household composition and function. blages from turn-of-the-century households in The brothel is a distinctive type of household, Hooker’s Division. The brothel assemblage re- composed of boarding women who live together in flects the consumer behavior of the household’s their workplace. The brothel differs from other occupants, the madam and resident prostitutes. boardinghouses, where boarders go out to work. Comparison of the brothel assemblage with con- The brothel also differs from the working-class temporary working-class household assemblages family household, which is also workplace and from Hooker’s Division and two other Washing- residence for women: members of the brothel 84 HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY, VOLUME 25 household are not kin, and reproduction of society and brothels. Data from census records were col- is not a function of the brothel household. The lected for a larger sample of house lots which in- function of the brothel is to provide a service for cluded all excavated house lots as well as unexca- the profit of the provider, the manager, and the vated house lots facing Ohio Avenue, 13% Street, owner. The social component of brothel life was and C Street. Information from other primary important to the residents, but peripheral to the sources, including newspapers, city directories, function of the turn-of-the-century brothel as the general assessments, and historic maps, was used institution of commercialized sex. to identify occupants and household types (Fig- Working-class women also worked at home, in ure 2). both paid and unpaid labor. Most of the work of The archaeological assemblages reflect the con- homemaking was devoted to the care of the family. sumer choices made by the occupants of each type To contribute to the family income without going of household. The study of these choices, directed out to work, women did piecework at home or took by economic resources, household requirements, in laundry, sewing, and boarders. Although such and individual taste, contributes to understanding work had a commercial component, it functioned the lives of working women in turn-of-the-century to maintain the ideal of the family home. Washington, D. C. The relationship between consumer behavior, household composition, and household function in turn-of-the-century Washington, D.C., is eluci- The Cultural Construction of dated by understanding women’s work. By con- Gender and Work sidering women, work, and income in the context of industrial capitalism and culturally defined gen- Gender roles define appropriate behavior for der roles, the consumer patterns of brothels and members of society according to their sex and age. working-class households make sense. These roles are considered natural, but they are Gender roles are culturally prescribed behavior cultural constructs. Although appropriate female patterns. Prescribed behavior includes appropriate behavior includes bearing children, the complex of work, but the definition of appropriate work is behavior comprising the gender role goes far be- complicated by conflicting systems of valuing yond behavior dictated by physiology (Matthaei work. In the context of marriage, a woman’s ac- 1982:6-7; Jacobs and Roberts 1989:439). Age is tivity as sexual partner and her domestic labor defined by years as well as social maturity, mea- within the household are components of a social sured in terms of marital status. In American cul- relationship; however, in the context of prostitu- ture at the end of the 19th century, gender roles of tion, a woman’s activity as sexual partner is her adult men and women were constructed as com- labor and is a component of a commercial relation- plementary and separate: men were providers, em- ship. While the married woman’s activities may be ployed in productive wage labor in the public, in- highly valued socially, the prostitute’s activities dustrial sphere; women were homemakers, are highly valued commercially, and she is highly devoted to unpaid labor in the private, domestic paid for her labor. Nevertheless, the working-class sphere. Men’s work involved commodity produc- wife and the prostitute are each involved in activ- tion for exchange on the open market; women’s ities considered essentially female. For working- work involved the consumption of products, pro- class women, gender roles had significant eco- duction of goods for use, and the reproduction of nomic consequences. Decisions about work which society by bearing and socializing the next gener- affected consumption are reflected in the archaeo- ation (Hayden 1982:3, 13; Matthaei 1982:106, logical record. 114-115). Full adult status was achieved by mar- The archaeological investigations at Hooker’s rying and maintaining a family. A man who could Division sampled deposits from 10 house lots; the not support his family financially fell short of true sample included both working-class households manhood; a woman who did not devote her ener- THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF WORKING WOMEN 85 FIGURE 2. Detail of the 1903 Sanborn Fire insurance Map showing house lots included in the census sample and excavated sample gies to the home and family compromised her Men’s work and women’s work has less to do with womanhood (Matthaei 1982:36, 51, 105, 121; cf.

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